1871: Clement Vallandigham, U.S. Congressman and political opponent of Abraham Lincoln, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while defending a murder suspect in court. Vallandigham was demonstrating for the jury how the victim could have accidentally shot himself while drawing the gun when his own gun, which he believed to be unloaded, discharged. His client was acquitted
1939: Finnish actress Sirkka Sari died when she fell down a chimney into a heating boiler. She mistook a chimney for a balcony.
edit: have any of you Croydon ninjas heard of this guy?
1974: Basil Brown, a 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, drank himself to death with carrot juice.