I became aware of Mix’s death because of the reference in one of Farmer’s Riverworld books, where someone says something about how people were grubbing after the money that had been spilled on the ground, rather than doing anything about the crash. Before that, I had only a vague idea that he was a movie actor.
As far as JFK’s death, if it weren’t for Ruby offing Oswald a couple days later, there likely would not have been any conspiracy therories about it. That’s what actually makes it different.
This very much surprises me. His suicide was a huge part of his legacy. I knew of it long before I knew what he’d written. I think the fact that you’re younger has something to do with this.
I’m not sure. I think the assassination is getting less of a big deal over time (as other posters have said it was completely unique at the time, now it’s just another high profile death that was caught on camera) whereas the historical events he was pivotal in are still considered a massive part of history particularly in the US.
I had to read some of his works in high school. But, perhaps because it was high school, his death never came up. I suspect I’m not unique in that experience.
Another sports/runner: Terry Fox. He was running across Canada for cancer awareness, but had to cut his journey short near Thunder Bay, which has one of the many statues of him across the country.
Thomas Midgley Jr invented leaded gasoline and the first CFCs. He was one environmental disaster away from the hat trick, and probably had more to do with the really nasty widespread pollution than any other single person.
But that was his life. He died as many people in the 20th Century lived: The inadvertent victim of an invention he created to make life better. In his case, he contracted polio, was left disabled, and invented a system of ropes and pulleys to get himself out of bed, and that invention strangled him.
Perillos—inventor of the Brazen Bull (a particularly gruesome ancient torture device).
According to legend, Perillos (a bronze craftsman) made the BB for his master, Phalaris (not a nice man). He thought this would curry favor with his master, perhaps gain him his freedom!
Well, cruel as Phalaris was, even he thought Perillos’s device was evil incarnate. So, he asked Perillos to climb into the bull and do a sound check on the acoustics (screams from the tortured supposedly sounded like a bleating bull—how charming). Well, when Perillos climbed in, Phalaris locked the door and roasted him. What a practical joker! Didn’t kill him, though.
After roasting a while, Phalaris took Perillos out, then threw his charred body from atop a nearby hill. That killed him.
I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess, as Perillos was plummeting down the hill, he wished he had brought Phalaris a bouquet of flowers instead.
But health hazards associated with the fuel generated negative headlines so in October 1924, Midgley called a press conference to show how harmless tetraethyl lead was.
He poured tetraethyl lead over his hands, sniffed and inhaled the vapour from a bottle of the fuel for 60 seconds and said: “I could do this every day without getting any health problems whatsoever.”
However, soon after, he was diagnosed with serious lead poisoning and it took more than a year for him to recover.
The guys you listed were the real guy’s names. I wondered if one of them had the nickname “Toothpick Charlie.”