A Greek playwright was killed when a turtle was dropped on his head from above. Apparently the eagle carrying the turtle had mistaken his head for a stone, as eagles are known to kill turtles by dropping them on rocks. The turtle survived.
The Roman emperor Titus was reported to have had an insect fly into his nose and gnaw on his brain for seven years. When he died, they opened his skull and reportedly found that the insect was the size of a bird.
A French actor and platwright, Moliere, died of a coughing fit while starring in his play, The Imaginary Sickness.
Grigori Rasputin, a mystic, was given poison at dinner with an enemy, and when he did not die, and assassin was sent up behind him and shot him in the head. While checking Rasputin's pulse, the assassin was strangled by Rasputin, and the mystic ran away. During the chase he was shot three times, and then when he was caught, the assassins threw him into the icy river nearby. When his body washed ashore, the autopsy showed that he had died of hypothermia, suggesting that the cold had killed him and that poison and gunshot wounds had done little.
A British man named Gerald Mellin tied a rope to a tree and then fastened it to his neck. He then drove his Aston Martin away from the tree at high speed, decapitating himself.
