famously died

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Throughout history there have been some pretty unusual deaths. Attila the Hun is said to have died from a nosebleed. Isadora Duncan, a popular American dancer in the 1920s, was strangled to death after her scarf got caught up in the axle of the car she was riding in. Stanford White, architect of New York's Madison Square Garden, was shot and killed on the roof of the building he designed. And writer Tennessee Williams famously choked on a bottle cap.

Writer Tennessee Williams famously died from choking on a bottle cap.  Herb Snitzer/Getty Images

Being covered in molasses is nothing to smile about.

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21 deaths followed a bizarre cause on a warm day in January 1919 in Boston when a large tank containing about 2.5 million gallons of molasses exploded in a neighborhood in the city's North End. The tank was 50 feet high (15.2 meters), had a diameter of 90 feet (27.4 meters) and was situated on the waterfront in an area populated at the time largely by Italian immigrants. Nobody is sure what caused the massive explosion that sent shrapnel flying as far as 200 feet (61 meters) [source: wired.com].

Some of the deaths are attributed to the force of the blast itself, and it's impossible to say now exactly how many perished in the aftermath. But we do know that the explosion caused a wall of molasses that was reportedly 25 feet (7.6 meters) high to flow into the neighborhood at an estimated 35 miles per hour (56.3 kph) [source: wired.com]. The sticky wave knocked people over and sucked them in, causing them to drown in the thick, brown liquid.

It took months to clean the mess up and more than 100 lawsuits were settled for almost $1 million six years after the accident occurred [source: wired.com]. That's more than $12 million in 2009. Residents of the unlucky neighborhood claim they can still smell the molasses on hot summer days.

The all-time record for a beard goes to a Norwegian man who grew his beard out to a length of 17.5 feet (5.3 meters) [source: Spies]. His name was Hans Langseth and he died in 1927. At one point his beard was even on display in the Smithsonian Institute.

An Austrian man from the mid-1500s, Hans Steininger's beard was a mere 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) long, but that was enough to lead to his untimely death [source: TIME]. Hans would keep his beard rolled up in a leather pouch, but failed to do so one day in 1567. A fire broke out in his town that day and he reportedly tripped on his beard while trying to evacuate. There are conflicting reports as to whether Steininger broke his neck or perished in the fire, but either way it was a very bizarre way to go.

The view from atop the world-famous Hollywood sign.

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Hollywood has left more than a few dreams of fame and fortune shattered over the years. The most famous of these sad stories is probably that of Peg Entwistle, a young actress from Wales. Enwistle had some success on the stage, even winning roles on Broadway in New York City, but like so many others, she was drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood in central Los Angeles.

Once in California, she found a small measure of success when she played a part in the film "Thirteen Women," but the fame she desired still eluded her. Test screenings of the film went poorly, and much of her work was edited out of the final product. On Sept. 16, 1932, she climbed up to the famous Hollywood sign for her final act. At the time, the sign still read "Hollywoodland" and was merely an advertisement for a new housing development. Entwistle left her belongings, including a suicide note, at the base of the sign and then climbed up and leapt from the top of the letter "H."

Her body lay there for two days before it was spotted and later identified by her uncle, who lived in the hills near the sign. Her suicide note simply said, "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." In an ironic twist, a letter arrived for Entwistle the day following her death offering her a part in a movie about a woman on the verge on suicide.

Hoarding can be a real problem for some people.

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They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure, but it can get out of hand if you become a packrat. Sadly, the same can't be said about New York City's Collyer Brothers.

Langley and Homer Collyer moved to the New York neighborhood of Harlem in 1909 when they were in their twenties. Sons of an upper class family, the brothers became increasingly hermitic over the years and began to hoard items. How much stuff did they accumulate? It's estimated that there were 180 tons (163 metric tons) of "junk" in the apartment in the end [source: New York Times]. Busted chandeliers, broken baby carriages, smashed pianos, crackedclocks and molding furniture was stacked in every corner of their home. Homer went blind in the 1930s and was bedridden because of rheumatism by 1940. His younger brother cared for his every need and even saved hundreds of thousands of newspapers in hopes that Homer would regain his sight.

Oddly, the home was also booby-trapped in places to prevent intruders. This would turn out to be Langley's undoing when he tripped on one of the traps and was buried beneath an avalanche of junk. Unable to help, Homer could only slowly starve to death as his brother lay dead under the pile of refuse. Police reportedly searched Manhattan for weeks before realizing that Langley was buried in his own home.

Were the deaths of nine Russian hikers in 1959 due to a UFO?

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What exactly happened to cause the deaths of nine hikers in the Ural Mountains of Russia on Feb. 2, 1959, remains one of the country's most notorious unsolved mysteries. On Jan. 28, 10 students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute set off for some winter hiking. One member fell ill and was left behind to recuperate in a mountain settlement.

The other nine never made it out of the woods, and what investigators found was both frightening and confusing. Their abandoned tent was found ripped open from the inside, half buried in snow, with the shoes and belongings of the students still inside. The first two bodies were found at the edge of the forest, barefoot and dressed in their underwear. The next three bodies were found nearby in similar condition. Two months later, the last of the bodies were found buried in the snow about 250 feet (75 meters) from the first victims [source: sptimes.ru].

These four students had massive internal injuries, broken ribs and crushed skulls. One of them was missing her tongue. One thing that perplexed investigators was the fact that there was no sign of struggle and no external wounds. The final four victims were wearing some of the clothes of the others that were found to have high levels of radiation.

Theories have abounded over the years -- avalanche, alien interaction and military testing to name a few. Case records were sealed until 1990, when it was learned that bright orange spheres had been spotted in the sky that night by other hikers. This and the radiation on the clothes lead most people to believe that were some secret military shenanigans going on -- although the Russian government has never owned up to anything.