Boards
Fact-O-Rama 301009: Critical Existance Failure Edition
- In 1945, Scientist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. accidentally dropped a brick of tungsten carbide onto a sphere of plutonium while working on the Manhattan Project. This caused the plutonium to come to criticality; Daghlian died of radiation poisoning, becoming the first person to die in a criticality accident. The following year Louis Slotin, chemist and physicist, died of radiation poisoning after being exposed to lethal amounts of ionizing radiation caused by accidentally dropping a block of material on the very same sphere of plutonium. The sphere of plutonium was henceforth nicknamed the Demon core.
- Famed dancer Isadora Duncan died in 1927 when one of the long flowing scarves she was known for wearing got caught in the wheels of the car in which she was a passenger, throwing her from the vehicle and causing death from a broken neck - allegedly moments after uttering the words "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!". Commenting afterwards, Gertrude Stein made the remark that "affectations can be dangerous", the bitch.
- In the Boston Molasses Disaster, 21 people were killed and 150 were injured when a tank containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8 700 000 L) of molasses exploded, sending a wave traveling at approximately 35 mph (56 km/h) through part of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Most fatalities and injuries were caused by the concussive force of the blast or by asphyxiation as victims failed to swim free of the viscous molasses and drowned. The event was commemorated in the song 'Sticky Nightmare' by folk balladeers Down I Go in 2007.
- A tailor, Franz Reichelt fell to his death off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower while testing his invention, the coat parachute in 1912. 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, but for some reason didn't - the retard. Interesting, there is video footage of the event easily found on the internet. The video is notable for a caption card shown after Reichelt impacts bearing the legend "Le Fáilure!", leading historians to believe the footage represents the world's first 'Fail' film.
- Claude François, a French pop singer, was electrocuted in 1975 when he tried to change a light bulb while standing in his bathtub which was full of water at the time. The coroner, Jean-Marie Hérve was subsequently killed by Facepalm.
- in 1935, Baseball player Len Koenecke was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher by the crew of an aircraft he had chartered, after provoking a fight with the pilot while the plane was in the air. Asked to comment afterward, the pilot remarked "he was being a dick."
- In 1995, 14 year old Ryan Bielby plummeted to her death while riding the rollercoaster the Timber Wolf at Kansas City's Worlds of Fun amusement park. She had unbuckled her seatbelt and manoeuvred herself free from the lap bar and restraint devices in an apparent attempt to switch seats with a friend. She fell about 25 feet to her deserved death.
- 1998: Every player on the Basanga soccer team at a game in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between Bena Tshadi and visitors Basanga was struck by a fork bolt of lightning, killing them all instantly. The Bena Tshadi players survived and yet still lost the game 3-1.
- This year Vincent Smith Jr, 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 120°F (50°C) 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 and delicious a short time after that.