Going over Niagara Falls in a barrel is the Mount Everest of accomplishments for daredevils. It stands to reason that anyone who can survive such a feat must possess near-superhuman invulnerability and […]
Captain John Kendrick’s life was filled with excitement and surprise. So was his death.
Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 B.C.) is most-commonly remembered for the geometric formula that bears his name. What is less-well remembered about him is the way beans contributed to his untimely […]
In the long list of people who have been executed by the electric chair, Willie Francis (1929-1947) was the first one to go through the process twice.
To say that the King of Bohemia blindly rushed into battle is not an indictment on his judgment; it is a statement of fact. The Bohemian monarch lost his eyesight when he […]
Regicide is the term used to describe to killing of a monarch. History records kings and queens who have been poisoned, stabbed, shot, beheaded, and blown up. The animal kingdom boasts a […]
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) knew the value of a faithful friend. Maybe that’s why he acquired a yellow mixed-breed dog in 1855 when he lived in Springfield, Illinois. The future President named the […]
When it comes to death, the only real certainty is that we all will face it eventually. As to the manner in which you are likely to leave this world, well, statisticians […]
Eva Duarte Peron, the wife of one-time leader of Argentina Juan Peron, was immensely popular as the nation’s First Lady. Her life inspired the musical play and motion picture Evita. Upon her […]
How can suicide be the cause of death and not be self-inflicted? How about when the suicide of one person causes the death of another? Such an unfortunate event happened on August […]
Attorney Clement Vallandigham (former US Congressman from Ohio and famously deported to the South by President Lincoln during the Civil War) was defending Thomas McGehan, who was accused of shooting a man […]
Jimi Heselden, chairman of the company that manufactures Segways, died after driving his Segway off a cliff. source
Monica Meyer, the mayor of Betterton, Maryland, died in 1980 while checking her town’s sewage tanks – she fell in and drowned in 15 feet of human waste. An investigator on the […]
Jennifer Strange, a 28-year-old woman from Sacramento, died in 2007 of water intoxication while trying to win a Wii console in a radio station’s “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest, which […]
Franz Reichelt (1879-1912) 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. He […]
Commonplace Fun Facts 