Amazing Death Trivia Continued....

In 1355, when King Pedro of Portugal was crowned, he dug up his mistress to have her properly honored as queen. Loyal subjects bowed before the decorated corpse and had to kiss her hand. That was nice of him - most women can't even get their husbands to take them out to a simple dinner while they're alive ...

By law, all executed criminals in the U.S. have to have an autopsy to determine cause of death. I guess "He was executed by lethal injection" isn't good enough...

If you're planning on being cryogenically frozen, the ideal time to start the procedure is within 10 minutes of death.

The first recorded means of execution is stoning. It was usually a public participation sport, and it was considered bad form to hit the victim in the head. The preferred method was to keep the victim conscious and suffering for as long as possible from internal injuries and broken bones. Think that's horrible? They still do this in some countries. To women. Only.

Henry the VIII executed some 72,000 subjects. His favorite method was boiling people to death .

The ashes of astronomer Eugene Shoemaker were put aboard the 1999 Lunar Prospector flight and was "control" crashed into a crater to give him a moon burial.

William Kemmler was the first person to be executed in the electric chair in 1890, at Auburn Prison in New York. It was a disaster. The executioner had to administer several rounds of juice while Kemmler kicked, seared, smoked, thrashed and convulsed, finally dying after 8 minutes. An autopsy showed he literally cooked to death, from the inside out.

An eternal flame lamp at the tomb of a Buddhist priest in Nara, Japan has been tended to and kept burning for 1,133 years (2009)


From the 1850s to the 1880s, the most common reason for death among cowboys in the American West was being dragged by a horse while their foot was still caught in the stirrups. Then I guess someone noticed this and said, "Hey! We ought to be more careful!" So it stopped.

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, his pal Henry Ford trapped the inventor's last dying breath in a bottle.

King Cambyses of Persia (525 BC) marched 50,000 troops into the desert to attack Amun, on the Libyan border. A sandstorm of epic proportions boiled up and buried them all.

The leading cause of death to military personnel in US in peace time is drunk driving.

Murderers, on average, are 7.5 years younger than their victims.

The Viet Nam Memorial has the names of 38 people engraved on it who are listed as killed, but weren't.

Extreme cold is more lethal to humans than extreme heat. Cold makes you sleepy, and when you fall asleep, you die.

Actor Bela Lagosi was buried in his favorite Dracula cape.

Japanese factory worker Kenji Urada became the first known fatality 'caused by robot' in July, 1981, in a car plant.

It would take more than 2.5 minutes to fall from the top of Mt. Everest. Then you'd go --->S P L A T <---

It's a myth that there's a "curse of King Tut's tomb " and 'most ' of the people who were present at the opening of the tomb died swift, horrible deaths. Of the 22 present at it's opening, 21 were alive 10 years later.

In the 'old days' men and women used a Laff Riot of deadly substances for cosmetics, which would often lead to their insanity and death.
Lead was used for that pale white skin in the form of Lead white and Venetian Ceruse, which was absorbed into the skin, into the tissues and blood and caused acute lead poisoning.
Mercury, in the form of mercury sublimate or "Solman's Water" was used to remove warts and bleach freckles. Ditto.
Belladonna, a fatally toxic hallucinogen, was used to redden cheeks and lips.

It's said that most people who commit suicide 'arrange' it so the people/person they want to 'punish' or give a final "See I told you so" find the body.

Armadillos and humans are the only animals that get leprosy.

The most common animal people on their death beds or in death hallucinations/visions report seeing is a grey or black dog.

More men than women commit suicide over love affairs gone wrong. This clearly shows that Men are DITCHED :)

It is a myth that In the 20 years of the Great California Gold Rush (1849) lots of people were killed by Red Indians, actally about 300,000 died from disease and 362 were killed by Red Indians.

When Anne Boleyn was beheaded, so was her dog, Urian. Guess that showed her.

It's estimated that in one hour, Genghis Khan's army killed 1,748,000 people. Each of his men was ordered to kill as many people as they could until they dropped from exhaustion, and bring the ears of the victims to the officers for proof.

Chocolate is lethal to dogs. Doesn't take much.

Elephants have been known to die of broken hearts if a mate dies. They refuse to eat and will lay down, shedding tears until they starve to death. They refuse all human help.

Union General John Sedgewick was killed during the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 9, 1864 while sitting on his horse and making the comment that the confederate troops were so inept that they "couldn't hit an elephant from this dis - - - " Those were his last words.

Direct Dialing inspired by death -> Almon Strowger was one of two undertakers who worked in Kansas City in the 1800s. When a dear friend died, he thought it was pretty strange he hadn't been called by the family to take care of the funeral arrangements. It just so happened that the only telephone operator in Kansas City, who received and directed all the city's phone calls, was the other undertaker's wife. Hmmm.... Strowger didn't get mad, he got even. He invented the world's first automatic telephone exchange system (and the first dial phone) making it possible for people to dial numbers directly and not have to use operators. Take that.