The most stupid deaths of historical figures

We all know that life and health need to be treated carefully and carefully: even a trifle or a stupid accident can ruin everything. Everyone knows the ridiculous stories of the “lucky ones” who left our world because of ridiculous and absurd accidents. There are such people among famous historical figures.

Pietra Aretino was ruined by laughter

The Italian playwright and satirist has always loved to joke sarcastically, which is what he made his career on: his evil jokes and caustic sonnets have always become the most talked about. In them, he could cruelly ridicule even the popes!

This gave him success, popularity, albeit accompanied by a damaged reputation. This took his life. Once, while drinking, Pietro heard a bawdy anecdote, and he burst out laughing so hard that he fell and smashed his skull (according to some sources, laughing, he died of a heart attack).

By the way, he is not the only such “lucky” story: the English writer Thomas Urquhart also died of laughter when he heard that Charles II had ascended the throne.

Sigurdu Eysteinsson was punished by fate: death from the teeth of a dead man

In 892, Sigurd the Mighty spent a long time preparing for a grand battle with the local jarl. In a desperate struggle for peace, both sides agreed to meet and strike a deal. But Sigurd decided to play against the rules: he betrayed his opponent by killing him.

The Yagla warriors decapitated the rival’s corpse and tied the head of the defeated enemy to the Mighty’s saddle as a trophy. He rather went home to rest, but on the way his horse stumbled, and the huge teeth of the dead head scratched the jarl’s leg. There was a strong infection. The graph was gone after a couple of days – this is such a visual boomerang effect.

John Kendrick was shot down by a cannonball during a salute in his honor

In honor of the great navigator, a thirteen-gun salute was fired from the brig, and the ship “Jackal” responded with a salute back. One of the cannons was loaded with real buckshot. The cannonball flew off and killed Captain Kendrick and several other sailors. The celebration ended with a funeral.

Jean-Baptiste Lully injured with a conductor’s cane

On a January day in 1687, the French musician conducted one of his finest works in honor of the king’s recovery.

He beat out the rhythm with the tip of a composer’s cane, and she got hurt.

Over time, the wound transformed into an abscess, and later turned into severe gangrene. But Lully refused to amputate the leg, as he was afraid of losing the opportunity to dance. In March, the composer died in agony.

Adolf Frederick dies after overdoing buns

The Swedish king went down in history as a man who died from gluttony. The fact is that in the Scandinavian tradition there is a day similar to our Maslenitsa – “Fat Tuesday”. On the holiday, it was customary to gorge themselves on their fill before Great Lent.

The ruler honored the traditions of his people, and at lunch he ate squash soup, lobster with caviar, smoked herring, and sauerkraut, and washed down with more and more milk and sparkling drinks. At the end there was a dessert – traditional burgers. Adolf ate 14 pieces at once! And he died.

Alan Pinkerton once bit his tongue

According to the official version, the American detective was just walking around Chicago and tripped over the curb. During the fall, he bit his tongue. Gangrene began, which became the cause of his death.

But death was overgrown with a lot of speculation: it was during that period that he was working on the newest system for identifying criminals, and in order to prevent it from being published, the man was specially infected with malaria, or that he died a year before the official date of death from a stroke.

George Edward Stanhope was killed by a mosquito

From this man there were rumors and horror films about the curses of the pharaohs. It was he who entered these legends: he opened the tomb of Tutankhamun, and after a while he was killed … by a mosquito!

In March 1923, an Egyptologist accidentally nailed an insect with a razor, but the substances contained in the hemolymph of the unfortunate mosquito entered the researcher’s blood and slowly poisoned him.

It was announced that George had died of pneumonia. But, for example, the writer Arthur Conan Doyle believed that the causes of his death were the poisons created by the ancient Egyptian priests guarding the burial of the pharaoh.

Bobby Leach slipped on the peel

The Leach seemed to be immortal: he is the first man to climb Niagara Falls in a barrel, and the second person to do so after Annie Taylor. After the experiment, he spent six months in the hospital, healing multiple fractures. And still he was alive, making a fortune on it.

But 15 years later, during a lecture trip, he slipped either on an orange or on a banana peel and injured his leg. Blood poisoning developed, followed by gangrene. The man had to amputate his leg, but this did not help the unfortunate man.

Composer Alexander Scriabin unsuccessfully squeezed out a pimple

The pianist died at the age of only 43. The reason was that Scriabin decided to get rid of the pimple that popped up over his upper lip. But blood poisoning happened, which led to the last stage – sepsis. In those days, the disease was considered incurable.

The father of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was pricked with a needle

The dad of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was stapling papers one evening, and accidentally pricked his finger slightly with a needle. He did not pay attention to such a trifle and went to work in the forestry. There he became even worse. There was an anguish.

On arrival, he was already in a terrible state. It was too late to help – even an operation would not have made the situation easier. Within a few years, this smart and kind person and a happy family man left the world.