Marcus Licinius Crassus was a wealthy and greedy Roman, one of the members of the 'first triumvarate'. He died trying to subdue the Parthians. The story goes that he was killed when, after capture, the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat because they had heard the stories of his greed. Some, though, suspect he died in battle and the Parthians poured the gold in his mouth postmortem as they displayed his head as a trophy.

George Washington's death is also attributable to overt politeness. He was managing the fence lines on his plantation on a cold, rainy, December day. His work took longer than expected and by the time he returned to his house, cold and soaked, his planned dinner guests had arrived. Rather than dry off and change clothes he sat down to dinner with them and caught his death of cold (really, epiglottitis--inflammation of the epiglottis.). Though there is some speculation that he may have survived it the doctors attending him didn't stop bleeding him, as was the medical fashion of the time.

Isadora Duncan was a high-fashion lady in the 1920's who liked to wear flowing clothes and, especially, long scarves. She got into the back seat of her car one day, threw her scarf over her shoulder and told the chauffeur to take off. Unfortunately, the scarf wound its way around the axle of the rear wheel and upon the car's acceleration pulled tight, instantly breaking her neck.