Unusual Deaths
Wikipedia has a neat list of unusual deaths throughout history. While many are likely only legends, the list is still a fascinating read.
458 BC: The Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a live tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. The tortoise survived.
207 BC: Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunk donkey attempt to eat figs.
270 BC: The poet and grammarian Philitas of Cos reportedly wasted away and died of insomnia while brooding about the Liar paradox.
1478: George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence reportedly was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine[11] at his own request.
1868: Matthew Vassar, brewer and founder of Vassar College, died in mid-speech while delivering his farewell address to the College Board of Trustees.
1987: Dick Shawn, a comedian who starred in the 1968 movie The Producers, died of a heart attack while portraying a politician. Just before he died, he announced, “if elected, I will not lay down on the job,”.
1911: Jack Daniel, founder of the Tennessee whiskey distillery, died of blood poisoning six years after receiving a toe injury when he kicked his safe in anger at being unable to remember its combination.
1912: Tailor Franz Reichelt fell to his death off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower while testing his invention, the coat parachute. It was his first ever attempt with the parachute and he’d told the authorities in advance he would test it first with a dummy.
1923: Frank Hayes, jockey, suffered a heart attack during a horse race. The horse, Sweet Kiss, went on to finish first, making Hayes the only deceased jockey to win a race.
1979: Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford Motor Co. plant, was the first known man to be killed by a robot.
Unusual Survivals
The Free Fall Research Page has information on people who have survived free falls without a parachute. The most notable free falls are listed here, and other amazing free fall stories here. They also have a guide to surviving a free fall without a parachute here.
The website’s owner, Jim Hamilton, has self published a book on free fall survivals which contains over 200 stories of people who have survived unplanned free falls without a parachute. You can purchase a copy of Long-Fall Survival for $19.98 here.
Lt. I.M. Chisov, a soviet pilot, holds the record for surviving the longest free fall without a parachute. Eugene Hecht told the story of Chisov in his text book, Physics: Calculus:
Lieutenant I. M. Chisov of the former Soviet Union was flying his Ilyushin 4 on a bitter cold day in January 1942, when it was attacked by 12 German Messerschmitts. Convinced that he had no chance of surviving if he stayed with his badly battered plane, Chisov bailed out at 21,980 feet. With the fighters still buzzing around, Chisov cleverly decided to fall freely out of the arena. It was his plan not to open his chute until he was down to only 1000 ft above the ground. Unfortunately, he lost consciousness en route. As luck would have it, he crashed at the edge of a steep ravine covered with 3 ft of snow. Hitting at about 120 mi/h, he plowed along its slope until he came to rest at the bottom. Chisov awoke 20 min later, bruised and sore, but miraclously he had suffered only a concussion of the spine and a fractured pelvis. Three and one-half months later he was back at work as a flight instructor.
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