1. (430 BC) The Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles secretly jumped into the volcano Etna so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god; however, the volcano threw back one of his bronze sandals, revealing the deceit.
2. (272 BC) Phyrrhus of Epirus, the Greek king of Epirus during the Hellenistic era, died while fighting in Argos when an old woman threw a roof tile on his head (stuning him and allowing an Argive soldier to kill him)
3. (270 BC) Athenaeus of Naucratis, wrote that Philitas of Cos studied false arguments and erroneous word-usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death.
4. (207 BC) Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunken donkey attempt to eat figs.
5. (162 BC) Eleazar Maccabeus was crushed to death, at the Battle of Beth-zechariah by a War elephant. Eleazar rushed underneath the elephant, that he believed to be carrying Seleucid King Antiochus V, and thrust a spear into its belly, whereupon it fell dead on top of him.
6. (53 BC) The Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus was put to death by the Parthians by being forced to drink a cup of melted gold as a symbol of his thirst for riches.
7. (210) The Roman Emperor Valerian, after being defeated and captured by the Persians was subjected to the greatest insults, such being used as a human footstool by Shapur when mounting his horse. He was finally been killed by being flayed alive, after he has been skinned alive. His skin was has been stuffed with straw and preserved as a trophy.
8. (415) Hypatia of Alexandria, the first natable woman in mathematics, astronomy and philosophy, was murdered by Christian monks who stripped her naked and dragged her through the streets to the newly Christianised Caesareum church. Some reports suggest she was flayed with potsherds and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death.
9. (892) Sigurd the Mighty of Orkney strapped the head of a defeated foe to his leg, the tooth of which grazed against him as he rode his horse, causing the infection which killed him.
10. (1063) Béla I of Hungary died when his throne's canopy collapsed
11. (1219) According to legend, Inalchuk, the Muslim governor of the Central Asian town of Otrar, was captured and killed by the invading Mongols, who poured molten silver in his eyes, ears, and throat.
12. (1308) The important theologian John Duns Scotus, according to an old tradition was buried alive following his lapse into a coma.
13. (1322) Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford was fatally speared through the anus by a pikeman hiding under the bridge during the Battle of Boroughbridge.
14. (1327) Edward II of England was rumored to have been murdered by having a red-hot iron inserted into his anus.
15. (1410) The king of Aragon, Martin of Aragon, died from a lethal combination of idigestion of uncontrollable lauging
16. (1478) George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine at his own request.
17. (1559) Humayun, the second Mughal Emperror who ruled modern Afganistan, Pakistan, and parts of northen India, died on March 4. His arms full of books, he was descending the staircase from his library when the muezzin announced the call to prayer. It was his habit, wherever he heard the summons, to bow his knee in holy reverence. Kneeling, he caught his foot in his robe, tumbled down several steps and hit his temple on a rugged stone edge. He died three days later
18. (1599) Nanda Bayin, the king of Taungoo Dynasty, laughed to death when he was informed by a visiting Italian merchant, that “Venice was a free state without a king”
19. (1601) The Danish nobleman, Tycho Brahe, died of complications resulting from a strained bladed at a banquet. It would have benn considered impolite to leave the table before the completion of the meal, so he stayed until he became fatally ill.
20. (1649) The royalist, Sir Arthur Aston, was beaten to death with his own wooden leg by Parliamentarian soldiers
21. (1660) Thomas Urquhart, the Scottish aristocrat, polymath and the first translator of Rabelais in English, died laughing upon hearing that Charles II had taken the throne.
22. (1671) Lous XIV chef, Francois Vatei, committed suicide because his seafood was late and he could not shame the cancellation of the menu.
23. (1673) The French playwright Moliere died while performing the title role of his play Le Malade Imaginaire, after being seized by a violent coughing fit.
24. (1687) Jean-Baptiste Lully, the French composer, died in 1687, during the rehearsal of “Te Deum” which was to celebrate the king’s recovery from an illness. Not being satisfied with the musicians, he violently pierce his foot with a staff, in his vigorous efforts to conduct the orchestra.
25. (1751) Julien Offray de La Mettrie, the author of L'Homme machine, a major materialist and sensualist philosopher died of overeating at a feast given in his honor. His philosophical adversaries suggested that by doing so, he had contradicted his theoretical doctrine with the effect of his practical actions.
26. (1753) The professor Georg Wilhelm Richmann, was the first person to be killed struck by a globe of ball lightning while performing electrical experiments.
27. (1771) Adolf Frederick, remembered as “The king who ate himself to death, died in Febrary 1771, after havening consumed a meal consisting of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, topped off with 14 servings of his favourite dessert: semla served in a bowl of hot milk.
28. (1814) Nine people were killed during The London Beer Flood occurred on October 16, 1814 in the London at the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road. A huge vat containing over 135,000 imperial gallons of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 imperial gallons of beer burst out and gushed into the streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping the barmaid under the rubble.
29. (1830) William Huskisson, statesman and financier, was crushed to death by the world's first mechanically powered passenger train (Stephenson's Rocket), at its public opening.
30. (1862) Jim Creighton, baseball player, died when he swung a bat too hard and ruptured his bladder.
31. (1863) Emma Livry, the romantic ballarina and protégée of Marie Taglioni, died after burn injuries sustained when her costume caught fire during a performance rehearsal.
32. (1868) 1868: Matthew Vassar, brewer and founder of Vassar College, died in mid-speech while delivering his farewell address to the College Board of Trustees.
33. (1871) Clement Vallandigham, a political opponent of Abraham Lincoln, died after being self-shot, in court while representing the defendant in a murder case. Demonstrating how the murder victim could have inadvertently shot himself, the gun, which Vallandigham believed to be unloaded, discharged and mortally wounded him.
34. (1899) President of France, died while engaged in sexual activities with his secretary.
35. (1912) Franz Reichelt, tailor, 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 had told the authorities in advance he would test it first with a dummy.
36. (1916) Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic, was reportedly poisoned while dining with a political enemy, shot in the head, shot three more times, bludgeoned, and then thrown into a frozen river.
37. (1918) Gustav Kobbé, writer and musicologist, was killed when the sailboat he was on was struck by a landing seaplane off Long Island, N.Y.
38. (1923) Martha Mansfield, an American film actress, died after sustaining severe burns on the set of the film The Warrens of Virginia after a smoker's match, tossed by a cast member, ignited her Civil War costume of hoopskirts and ruffles.
39. (1925) Zishe (Siegmund) Breitbart, a circus strongman died tragically and ironically at the age of 32. In a demonstration in which he drove a spike through five one-inch thick oak boards resting on one of his knees using only his bare hands, his knee was accidentally pierced. The wound became infected, which led to fatal blood poisoning. Both legs were amputated in an effort to stem the infection, but they failed. Zishe Breitbart succumbed after eight weeks. He is buried in a cemetery in Berlin.
40. (1926) Harry Houdini, the famous American escape artist, was punched in the stomach by an amateur boxer who had heard that Houdini could withstand any blow to his body above his waist, excluding his head. Though this had been done with Houdini's permission, complications from this injury caused him to die days later, on Halloween (October 31) of 1926.
41. (1927) J.G. Parry-Thomas, a Welsh racing driver, was decapitated by his car's drive chain which, under stress, snapped and whipped into the cockpit. He was attempting to break his own land speed record which he had set the previous year. Despite being killed in the attempt, he succeeded in setting a new record of 171 mph (275 km/h)
42. (1927) Isadora Duncan, dancer, died of a broken neck when one of the long scarves she was known for caught on the wheel of a car in which she was a passenger.
43. (1930) William Kogut, an inmate on death row at San Quentin, decided to commit suicide using only the rudimentary tools available to him in his prison cell. He began by tearing up several packs of playing cards, giving particular focus to obtaining pieces with red ink (at the time, the ink in red playing cards contained nitrocellulose, which is flammable and when wet can create an explosive mixture), and stuffed them into a pipe. He then plugged one end of the pipe firmly with a broom handle and poured water into the other end to soak the card pieces. He then placed the pipe on a kerosene heater next to his bed and placed the open end firmly against his head. The heater turned the water into steam and eventually enough pressure built up inside the pipe so that when it burst, the explosion shot out bits of playing cards with enough force to penetrate Kogut's skull, killing him. In a suicide note, Kogut stated that he and he alone should punish himself for his crimes.
44. (1939) Finnish actress Sirkka Sari died when she fell down a chimney. She was at a cast party celebrating the completion of a movie, her third and last. She mistook a chimney for a balcony and fell into a heating boiler, dying instantly.
45. (1941) Sherwood Anderson, writer, swallowed a toothpick at a party and then died of peritonitis.
46. (1947): The Collyer brothers, extreme cases of compulsive hoarders, were found dead in their home in New York. The younger brother, Langley, died by falling victim to a booby trap he had set up, causing a mountain of objects, books, and newspapers to fall on him crushing him to death. His blind brother, Homer, who had depended on Langley for care, died of starvation some days later. Their bodies were recovered after massive efforts in removing many tons of debris from their home.
47. (1955) Margo Jones, theater director, was killed by exposure to carbon tetrachloride fumes from her newly cleaned carpet
48. (1963) Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, sat down in the middle of a busy intersection in Saigon, covered himself in gasoline, and lit himself on fire, burning himself to death. Đức was protesting President Ngô Đình Diệm's administration for oppressing the Buddhist religion.
49. (1967) Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first person to die during a space mission after the parachute of his capsule failed to deploy following re-entry.
50. (1972) Leslie Harvey, guitarist of Stone the Crows, was electrocuted on stage by a live microphone.
51. (1972) Luigi Greco, the Mafia boss of the Sicilian faction of Montreal, died from an incident occurring while renovating a family pizzeria. He used a mop dipped in kerosene and a metal scraper to remove the filth on the floor. However, the combination provoked an explosion and flash fire, and Greco died four days later at the Sacré-Cœur Hospital.
52. (1974) Christine Chubbuck, an American television news reporter, committed suicide during a live broadcast on 15 July. At 9:38 AM, 8 minutes into her talk show, on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a revolver and shot herself in the head.
53. (1974) Deborah Gail Stone, 18, an employee at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, was crushed to death between a moving wall and a stationary wall inside of the revolving America Sings attraction.
54. (1976) Keith Relf, former singer for British rhythm and blues band The Yardbirds, died while practicing his electric guitar. He was electrocuted because the amplifier was not properly grounded.
55. (1978) Claude François, a French pop singer, was electrocuted when he tried to change a light bulb while standing in his bathtub which was full of water at the time.
56. (1979) Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford Motor Co. plant, was the first known human to be killed by a robot, after the arm of a one-ton factory robot hit him in the head.
57. (1981) American photographer Carl McCunn paid a bush pilot to drop him at a remote lake near the Coleen River in Alaska in March to photograph wildlife, but failed to confirm arrangements for the pilot to pick him up again in August. Rather than starve, McCunn shot himself in the head. His body was found in February 1982.
58. (1981) Boris Sagal, a film director, died while shooting the TV miniseries World War III when he walked into the tail rotor blade of a helicopter and was decapitated.
59. (1981) Jeff Dailey, a 19-year-old gamer, became the first known person to die while playing video games. After achieving a score of 16,660 in the arcade game Berzerk, he succumbed to a massive heart attack. A year later, an 18-year-old gamer died after achieving high scores in the same game.
60. (1981) Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory worker was killed by a malfunctioning robot he was working on at a Kawasaki plant in Japan. The robot's arm pushed him into a grinding machine, killing him.
61. (1982) Vic Morrow, actor, was decapitated by a helicopter blade during filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Two child actors, Myca Dinh Le (who was decapitated) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (who was crushed), also died.
62. (1984) Tommy Cooper, British slapstick comedian died of a heart attack while performing live on national television. The audience continued to laugh as he lay collapsed on the stage, thinking it was part of the act. Following the principle that the show must go on, his body was left on the stage, hastily curtained off, and while attempts were made to revive him the other actors continued the act on the small part of the set which remained.
63. (1984) Jon-Erik Hexum, an American television actor, died after he shot himself in the head with a prop gun during a break in filming, playing Russian Roulette using a revolver loaded with a single blank cartridge. Hexum apparently was not informed that blanks have gunpowder that explodes into gas with enough force to cause severe injury or death if the weapon is fired as contact shot. This is the principle that gives a powerhead its lethality.
64. (1993) Actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was shot and killed by Michael Massee using a prop .44 Magnum gun while filming the movie The Crow. A cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in the pistol before the fatal scene; this caused a squib load, in which the primer provided enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck. The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene. His death was not instantly recognized by the crew or other actors; they believed he was still acting.
65. 2001: Hungarian singer Jimmy Zámbó accidentally shot himself in the head when trying to prove that the handgun he fired earlier had no more bullets left. While he did remove the magazine, he forgot the bullet that was left in the chamber.
66. 2003: Doug McKay was killed at the Island county fair amusement park when his arm was caught as he sprayed lubricant on a Super Loop 2 circular roller coaster. The ride was in operation at the time and he was pulled 40 feet (12 m) in the air before falling and landing on a fence.
67. 2004: Phillip Quinn, a 24-year-old of Kent, Washington was killed during an attempt to heat up a lava lamp bulb on his kitchen stove while closely observing it from only a few feet away. The heat built up pressure in the bulb until it exploded, spraying shards of glass with enough force to pierce his chest, with one shard piercing his heart, killing him.[138] The circumstances of his death were later repeated and confirmed in a 2006 episode of the popular science television series MythBusters.
68. 2005: Kenneth Pinyan ('Mr. Hands') of Gig Harbor, Washington died of acute peritonitis after seeking out and receiving anal intercourse from a stallion, an act he had engaged in previously. Pinyan delayed his visit to the hospital for several hours out of reluctance to explain the circumstances of his injury to doctors. The case led to the criminalization of bestiality in Washington. His story was recounted in the award winning 2007 documentary film Zoo.
69. (2005) Lee Seung Seop, a 28-year-old South Korean, collapsed of fatigue and died after playing the videogame StarCraft online for almost 50 consecutive hours in an Internet café.
70. (2007) Kevin Whitrick, a 42-year-old man, committed suicide by hanging himself live on a webcam during an Internet chat session.
71. (2009) Vincent Smith II, an employee at the Cocoa Services Inc. chocolate factory in Camden, New Jersey, was loading chunks of raw chocolate when he slipped and fell into a large melting tank filled with 120oF (50oC) chocolate, and was knocked out by one of the mixing paddles. Smith was trapped in the melting tank for 10 minutes before rescuers were able to extract him. He was declared dead a short time later.
(The list is put together through wikipedia and other internet sources / To be read as a poem by someone laughing or crying or laughing and crying alternatively)
