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Deaths by Date and Cause #1

Based on the time, place, and cause, name the famous person who died.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 21, 2020
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First submittedApril 17, 2012
Times taken72,424
Average score65.4%
Rating4.36
5:00
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Year
Where
How
Person
44 BC
Rome
Assassination
Julius Caesar
30 BC
Alexandria
Snake bite?
Cleopatra
33
Judaea
Crucifixion
Jesus
634
Medina
Fever
Mohammad
1431
Rouen
Burned at the
stake
Joan of Arc
1606
London
Jumped from
the gallows
Guy Fawkes
1779
Hawaii
Killed by angry
Hawaiians
Captain Cook
1804
New York
Shot in a duel
Alexander
Hamilton
1821
St. Helena
Stomach cancer
Napoleon
1914
Sarajevo
Assassination
Franz Ferdinand
1934
France
Radiation
Marie Curie
1941
New York
ALS Disease
Lou Gehrig
1945
Northern
Italy
Firing squad
Benito Mussolini
Year
Where
How
Person
1948
New Delhi
Assassination
Mohandas Gandhi
1955
California
Car crash
James Dean
1962
Los Angeles
Drug overdose
Marilyn Monroe
1973
Hong Kong
Unknown
Bruce Lee
1977
Memphis
Drug
complications
Elvis Presley
1991
London
AIDS
complications
Freddie Mercury
1994
Bologna
Formula One
crash
Ayrton Senna
1994
Seattle
Suicide
Kurt Cobain
1996
Las Vegas
Murder
Tupac Shakur
1997
Paris
Car crash
Princess Diana
1999
near Martha's
Vineyard
Plane crash
John F.
Kennedy Jr.
2011
London
Alcohol
Amy Winehouse
2011
Abbottabad
Gunshot
Osama Bin Laden
+12
Level 66
Apr 14, 2012
Another one of those quizzes that makes me say "I should know this stuff." Great one.
+2
Level 18
Apr 17, 2012
Same here
+3
Level 76
Apr 14, 2012
awesome quiz
+6
Level 21
Apr 14, 2012
Great quiz, but Hamilton was killed in New Jersey, as dueling in New York was illegal at that point.
+4
Level 37
Feb 14, 2017
So was dueling in NJ!
+2
Level 66
Oct 3, 2023
It was still legal in the town they were in, though.
+22
Level 62
Feb 27, 2017
He was shot in Jersey but died several hours later in New York,
+7
Level 78
Apr 15, 2012
Hamilton was SHOT in New Jersey on the cliffs in North Bergen - however, he DIED in New York City having been rushed back across the river to his rooms on Jane Street.
+6
Level 90
Oct 14, 2014
Weehawken, not North Bergen.
+4
Level ∞
Nov 15, 2016
And he was taken to New York where he died the next day
+1
Level 28
Apr 18, 2012
I love this quiz!
+2
Level 33
Jan 17, 2013
Loved this quiz. It really makes you think.
+1
Level 14
Feb 3, 2014
i missed ALS disease LOL
+2
Level 32
Feb 13, 2014
Didn't Napoleon die of lead poisoning?
+9
Level 65
Nov 8, 2017
Yes he was assassinated
+24
Level 89
Jul 9, 2020
Hey, wait a minute...
+1
Level 64
Mar 11, 2022
Hold up...
+2
Level 35
Jun 9, 2014
You should add Jack Daniels kicking his safe
+3
Level 84
Sep 22, 2020
Houdini, punch to the gut
+2
Level 71
Oct 13, 2020
Houdini would have been a good one. Here are a few more I thought of:

1587, Fotheringhay, beheading

1945, Berlin, suicide by gunshot

1986, Stockholm, shot

+4
Level 76
Mar 30, 2023
The punch didn't kill him, though. He died of acute appendicitis. If the punch had anything to do with it, it was to make him dismiss the pain in his abdomen until it was too late.
+1
Level 61
Oct 10, 2023
In that case, the cause of death could be listed as "acute appendicitis after being gut punched". We don't know for certain what role the punch played in causing or exacerbating his illness, but AFAIK there is consensus that it did at least indirectly contribute to his death. So in my opinion, it would be wrong (or at least incomplete) to just say "acute appendicitis" without bringing up the punch.
+2
Level 77
Jul 17, 2014
Guy Fawkes wasn't hanged, he jumped from the gallows and broke his neck. I also just realized (when looking it up to make sure I was right) that he was executed on my birthday.
+3
Level ∞
Oct 8, 2014
Fixed
+20
Level 88
Nov 27, 2014
@Wellington, you've got to tell me your secret! How have you lived for 408 years?!
+1
Level 66
Nov 27, 2014
Tupac is still alive though...
+5
Level 70
Nov 27, 2014
If we're doing conspiracies the Kurt Cobain one needs to be changed to "suicide" or murder...
+8
Level 82
Dec 15, 2018
"Jesus lives" said a huge graffiti in my town. Someone added: "listening to punk with Elvis."
+2
Level 60
Oct 14, 2020
I'm assuming you meant love...
+4
Level 51
Nov 27, 2014
Ironical as it is posted on the same day as Australian cricketer Phil Hughes sadly died in an unfortunate manner.
+1
Level 62
Oct 13, 2020
RIP Hughes.... Gone too soon, he had a great career ahead...
+1
Level 28
Nov 27, 2014
Can't decide if I am stupid or this quiz is really hard! Got a shockingly bad score.
+1
Level 83
Nov 27, 2014
Loved this quiz!
+2
Level 77
Mar 26, 2015
The answer for 1977 is wrong. Elvis is NOT dead.
+1
Level 65
Dec 22, 2015
Um, he has been for like 40 years by now. Maybe it's all those impersonations, trying to get the money. Just like Madonna.
+6
Level 85
Sep 21, 2020
Elvis is dead, Elvis is dead....

.....spend your money on our records instead;

The Forgotten Rebels, 1978

+7
Level 75
Oct 13, 2020
Considering he was born in 1935 even if he hadn't died in 1977, odds are that he's kicked it by now. I remember in the 1970s we were visiting my husband's grandmother who was a patient in Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. We were several floors up and I looked out her window and noticed that directly across from us in another wing all the windows were covered up along the entire wing. I asked a nurse about it and she told us that Elvis was a patient and for security reasons they had given him the whole wing and covered all the windows so no one could take photos. That's the closest I ever came to him.
+2
Level 69
Oct 4, 2015
He hasn't done much lately
+4
Level 71
Feb 21, 2016
One fact that surprises me about this quiz is that prior to 1950 the individuals are what you may call 'World Famous' afterwards apart from a couple of obvious people they are just film stars and entertainers. Has the media taken over the making of History?
+3
Level 56
Feb 27, 2017
Wikipedians call it recentism.
+2
Level 69
Oct 13, 2020
It must be that. I had heard the names of some of these new famous people, but had no idea who they were.
+1
Level 83
Sep 21, 2020
You might also notice that the time prior to 1950 covers 2000 years whereas the rest of the quiz covers barely 70.
+4
Level 67
Oct 13, 2020
I think that, with the advent of cooperation among most governments, advances in medicine, and stronger security details, it's just a lot less likely now that world leaders will die in memorable ways. I mean, how would you clue George H.W. Bush or Konrad Adenauer? They both died of natural causes. I also think the odds of Justin Trudeau dying by snake bite are pretty low. Qaddafi and Sadat are the only famous world leaders who died in a memorable way that I can think of. Other African leaders have been assassinated, but their names are less familiar to the average person. Movie stars and rock stars stand out more now because they much more frequently die young and in memorable ways.
+1
Level 78
Oct 13, 2020
That, and entertainers tend to be remembered more by their own age. 150 years ago, Lord Byron would have been remembered as much as Elvis is nowadays.
+1
Level 88
Oct 13, 2020
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. She wasn't in power at the time but had previously been PM of Pakistan twice and was leader of the main opposition party when she was killed. I was a bit surprised she wasn't on this quiz or its sequel.
+1
Level 78
Oct 13, 2020
vermiciousknid, there are so many who died well before their time or in peculiar circumstances. Empedocles (at least in the myth), Alexander the Great, Cicero, Seneca, Thomas Becket, Jan Hus, Marie Antoinette, Maximilien Robespierre, John Dillinger, Anne Frank, Buddy Holly, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Salvador Allende, Alexander Litvinenko. And as a German I might add Barbarossa, Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich von Kleist, Ludwig II., Walter Rathenau, Hermann Göring, Adolf Eichmann, Benno Ohnesorg, Hanns-Martin Schleyer, Walter Lübcke.
+2
Level 87
Oct 13, 2020
Yitschak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, Indira Gandhi in ‘84, Rajiv Gandhi in ‘91, Olof Palme of Sweden in ‘86... all major tragedies to the nations involved, but I guess not overly central to American/British audiences so they are not in this quiz.
+1
Level 88
Oct 16, 2020
@camus, my comment was intended for the discussion about famous world leaders dying in a memorable way since 1950; I wasn't trying to disagree with your statement.
+1
Level 35
Sep 1, 2016
I think Marilyn Monroe's should be Unknown, as it was never found out what killed her.
+1
Level 60
Oct 3, 2023
Exactly, since she was murdered to cover up the identities of those who plotted to assassinate JFK.
+3
Level 69
Feb 27, 2017
Shouldn't (von) Habsburg (-Lothringen) be acceptable for Franz-Ferdinand? Bonaparte is accepted for Napoleon.
+11
Level ∞
Feb 27, 2017
No
+1
Level 43
Feb 27, 2017
+1!
+3
Level 69
Mar 21, 2017
And why not? It seems consistent to accept the surname of the family as the surnames are accepted in other cases
+3
Level 82
Dec 15, 2018
It's not a surname, at least it wasn't at the time. And while even in Kennedy family for example there are 4-5 really famous ones, there are dozens among Habsburgs.
+2
Level 84
Feb 27, 2017
Was thinking Michael Hutchence but was pretty sure that wasn't in Bangkok (and was earlier than 2009).
+1
Level 58
Feb 27, 2017
Perhaps my enjoyment in causes of death should be worrisome, but this was a great quiz. Do another!!
+2
Level 57
Feb 27, 2017
missed Bin Laden
+2
Level 68
Oct 5, 2023
Maybe that's a controversial opinion, but I don't miss him.
+1
Level 43
Feb 27, 2017
Cleopatra's official cause of death was not a snakebite, but her commiting suicide by drinking poison.
+1
Level 60
Feb 28, 2017
Poison she drank because she'd been bitten by a snake.
+1
Level 37
Sep 8, 2018
I thought that it was Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) who drank the poison.
+1
Level 52
Oct 2, 2019
Nope she committed suicide by forcing a snake to bite her. At least that's the story
+1
Level 71
Nov 22, 2021
What happened to the snake?
+2
Level 74
May 12, 2022
I don't think they had too many coroner's inquests in ancient Egypt to come up with "official" causes of death
+2
Level 51
Feb 28, 2017
I'd suggest Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald at the 1963 Indy 500.
+4
Level 76
May 27, 2017
Surprised not to see Michael Jackson on this list.
+3
Level 80
Sep 22, 2020
Ayrton Senna? Learn something new almost every quiz. Retaining it is the issue.
+1
Level 75
Oct 13, 2020
Too true.
+2
Level 43
Oct 4, 2020
#RIP, Senninha...
+2
Level 68
Oct 13, 2020
Great quiz! 23/26, should have gotten Fawkes and Cook as well. Never heard of Lou Gehrig before.
+5
Level 75
Oct 13, 2020
In the US, ALS is often called Lou Gehrig's Disease. Gehrig was a famous Yankee baseball player who was stricken at the height of his career. He gave a famous retirement speech at the ballpark saying he was the luckiest man on earth to have lived the life he did, and he died in 1941 at the age of 37. Gary Cooper played him in the movie, Pride of the Yankees.
+2
Level 72
Oct 13, 2020
I know that he is less famous, but Roland Ratzenberger would also be a valid answer for Bologna 1994, as he died during the quali. In fact, Senna had an Austrian flag in his car he meant to show at the end of the race to honor Ratzenberger. Maybe Ratzenberger could be accepted too...
+1
Level 58
Oct 14, 2020
I'm gonna say Roland is not a "famous person" as the quiz states.
+2
Level 72
Oct 14, 2020
That's right... It's sad, but in a way, he isn't famous because Senna died the next day.
+1
Level 59
Oct 3, 2023
To be honest, I disagree with the suggestion that he's "not a famous person".

I get that he's not as famous as Senna, but he's still well-known to F1 fans (even if his only claim to fame is as "the other person who died at the same event as Senna").

+2
Level 82
Oct 14, 2020
UBL getting capped in Abottabad happened on my birthday.
+3
Level 58
Oct 14, 2020
Hitler ate his gun on my bday.
+2
Level 58
Oct 14, 2020
No credit for Dodi Al-Fayed? shame, shame
+2
Level 56
Oct 14, 2020
Cool but 1804 and 1941 are very "local" people not very known outside of US.
+3
Level 57
Oct 16, 2020
I think 1804 has become "common knowledge" since 2016, or at least in the last couple of months since a certain musical started streaming online.
+1
Level 59
Oct 14, 2020
lol i got two
+1
Level 68
Oct 16, 2020
Snakebite *is* a disgusting drink, but I didn't know it could kill you! I have been living somewhat dangerously as an exchange student in London, then!
+1
Level 60
Aug 11, 2021
Well, with modern medicine and stuff. I bet it was pretty deadly those days in a desert.
+1
Level 68
Oct 5, 2023
(A "snakebite" is a popular drink in the UK, made with half a pint of lager, half a pint of cider, and a dash of blackcurrant. It's very sweet. That was the joke.)
+3
Level 56
Oct 16, 2020
My favourite one is "1973, Hong Kong, unknown". Not a lot to go on...
+1
Level 66
Mar 7, 2021
Roland Ratzenberger should be accepted for the 1994 F1 crash in Imola. He died one day prior to Senna during Qualifying
+1
Level 66
Oct 3, 2023
I'd hardly call Ratzenberger a famous person, so I get why he is not accepted as an option. But I did have the same thought as you, and then scroll all the way down here to see if someone asked about him.
+2
Level 60
Aug 11, 2021
Would have got Joan of Arc if i was France instead of Rouen! Didn’t know where that place was, but i did know that there were a lot of burnings in those days, so i figured i didn’t know it
+2
Level 65
Nov 22, 2021
To me, Rouen is a french word.
+3
Level 56
Apr 8, 2022
Didn't Mohammad die in 632?
+2
Level 67
May 12, 2022
I thought so too
+1
Level 70
Oct 3, 2023
You're right, this is an error on the quiz.
+1
Level 60
May 12, 2022
Ayrton Senna on the list. One of my all-time heroes. #blessed
+1
Level 69
Oct 3, 2023
Along with Rey Mysterio, I'm guessing.
+3
Level 66
Oct 3, 2023
Could you accept "Skłodowska" for Marie Curie? It was her maiden name, and after getting married she was known as "Skłodowska-Curie".
+2
Level 66
Oct 3, 2023
Some of these were incorrect, some, no one outside the U.S. has even heard of.
+1
Level 66
Oct 3, 2023
Almost like the point of these quizzes is to learn
+1
Level 53
Oct 6, 2023
You should accept Jean d'arc
+1
Level 54
Oct 17, 2023
It was 632 and not 634. Need correction