The First Person to Die...

#1 In A Self-Driving Car

The Tesla test driver, Canton, Ohio resident Joshua Brown, killed in the first known fatal crash involving a self-driving car may have been watching a Harry Potter movie at the time of the collision in Florida, according to the truck driver involved in the crash. Brown had been riding in the Tesla cars all around the US testing them out for the company as it begins its journey to bring driverless cars to the world. Just days before the fatal accident, Brown, a former Navy SEAL, posted hours of video of himself driving his Model S on YouTube in Autopilot mode, including one that showed it avoiding an accident. The feature is still just in testing mode and because of its limitations, Joshua also became its first victim. The company said that because the truck was white, it reflected off the car's sensor system and failed to read the truck passing in front of the victim.

#2 On The Electric Chair

At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe by chopping her to pieces. Electrocution as a humane means of execution was first suggested in 1881 by Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist, who quickly set out to invent the chair himself. On Aug 6, 1890, Kemmler put on a suit and tie and calmly strode into the electrocution chamber and allowed himself to be strapped in. "Well, I wish everybody good luck," he said. When the warden ordered the death, the switch was thrown, and over 1,000 volts of electricity surged through Kemmler's body. After 17 seconds there was a stench of burning flesh but the doctors realized he wasn't dead yet, so they flipped the switch once more. Kemmler's eyes began to bleed, and his body caught fire. He was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

#3 On A Hoverboard

By 2016 we were meant to have already invented and been using hoverboards, according to the movie Back To The Future. To make this a reality, several companies came out with their version of the highly anticipated means of transportation by 2015, all of which were failures. The Segway Company came out with the most popular version, the "swegway", which is a Segway without handles. Whatever you call it, these electric skateboard-like devices are illegal on public streets in Britain and are believed to be highly dangerous. By Christmas of 2015, there were over 200 reports in the US, Britain, and Canada of some models exploding or catching fire. The devices have been limited in use and sales ever since and people just stopped buying them until they can become safer. In early December 2015, Nawaf Al-Tuwayan, a 15-year-old who lived in London, used one to make a trip to the store to get some milk for his mother. Witnesses say he looked unsteady on the device and fell in the middle of the road, only to be hit by a double decker bus and dragged 200 yards. His was the first known death of its sort in England. In Segways defence, the board didn't explode, which is how many believed the first death would occur from using a new hoverboard.

#4 By A Meteorite

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.. V. Kamaraj, a bus driver from Southern India, was the lucky person to be the first, and only, known to be killed by a falling meteorite. On Feb. 6, 2016, while working in a garden, the space rock fell from the skies in Tamil Nadu and hit Kamaraj directly on the head. It killed Kamaraj and injured three other people, leaving a 4-foot hole in the ground where he was standing. NASA says his demise is the only death by meteorite in recorded history.

#5 In A Powered Airplane

Yes, the Wright brothers get a lot of attention in our history books as being the first to invent the modern airplane. However, a lesser known fact is that Orville was responsible for the first passenger death. Thomas Selfridge was an officer in the US Army Signal Corps assigned to its new Aeronautical Division, which was investigating air travel for military use. They began testing planes and flights to see if the practice would be viable for the military. On September 17, 1908, Selfridge was the passenger in an airplane piloted by Orville Wright as part of a test. The propeller split and the plane went into a nosedive and crashed. Orville was severely injured but recovered; Selfridge fractured his skull in the accident and died several hours later. Despite the accident and the officers death, the Army awarded them the contract.

#6 In An Automobile

Joking aside, the first person to die in an automobile accident was a woman! Mary Ward was a true pioneer in an era when women were not considered intelligent enough for the sciences. She wrote many books on astronomy and microscopes, but her promising life was cut short when she went for a ride on a steam-powered car built by a family friend and designed by two others and herself at her home in Ireland. On August 31, 1869, she was thrown from the vehicle when it rounded a curve and crushed by one of its back wheels. This is believed to be the first recorded automobile death. The car was built by her cousins, the sons of William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse and another female inventor.

Bridget Driscoll of London became the first pedestrian fatality as she was crossing the street on August 17, 1896. As she crossed the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London, she was struck by an automobile belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Carriage Company that was being used to give demonstration rides. She froze at the sight of an automobile and was unable to move out of the way in time before tragedy struck.

#7 In Outer Space

The Russians beat the U.S. with not only the first satellite but also with the first and only deaths in space. Soyuz 11 was the first successful trip to the first space station, Salyut 1, launched by the Soviets in 1971. The three-person crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev were able to spend 22 days on board, a record for the time. However, upon re-entry, their cabin had accidentally depressurized, killing all three instantly. They were discovered lifeless with blood coming out of their noses when the capsule splashed down on June 30, 1971. (On April 24, 1967, Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed during re-entry on the Soyuz 1, one of the earliest rockets, but he died on impact with the Earth.)

#8 By Legal Euthanasia

Still illegal in many places around the world, assisted suicide, or euthanasia, has always been highly contoversial both morally and ethically. The first legally sanctioned euthanasia was in the Northern Territory of Australia, due to the passage of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of 1995. The first person to take advantage of this new law was terminally ill Bob Dent, who suffered from prostate cancer and took his life on September 22, 1996, with the help of Dr. Philip Nitschke. After three others followed suit and took their own lives under the ruling, public outraged won out and the bill was nulified a short time later.

#9 In The Revolutionary War

In an incident that became known as the Boston Massacre, Crispus Attucks death spurred calls for the Revolution, and he became the first American martyr. Crispus Attucks was the son of Prince Yonger, an African slave and Nancy Attucks, a Native American (but it's unclear if he was a slave or a free man). On March 5, 1770, Attucks was eating in a Boston pub when a mounting quarrel between British soldiers and Americans began to get ugly. Although the events leading up to his death are unclearsome say he picked up a stick and rallied Bostonians to confront British troops on King StreetCrispus was the first of five shot by the British in the incident that became what we call the Boston Massacre, jolting the Revolutionary War.

#10 From The Zika Virus In The Continental US

An elderly Salt Lake City, Utah woman is the first person in the continetal US to die from the Zika virus. The unidentified woman died in June of 2015 and had underlying health issues that increased her risks. "While this individual did test positive for Zika virus, the exact cause of death has not been determined, and it may not be possible to determine how the Zika infection contributed to the death," the health department said in a statement. The virus is not known to be fatal but is being linked to birth defects in unborn children. As of June 2016, there are close to 340 pregnant women in the US with the Zika virus., and over 1,700 cases of the infection in the continental US, but only the elderly woman has died from the mosquito borne infection.

#11 To Die From Cancer Who Didn’t Actually Have It

A Colombian man has died after parasitic worms growing inside his vital organs were found to be cancerous, doctors have reported. This was the first known report of a person having cancer cells developed from a parasitic organism. The 41-year-old man's immune system had been weakened by HIV, meaning the worm-cancer was able to thrive inside his body for years. The patient sadly was unable to be treated by the time doctors had figured out his mystery cancer and died three days after the worm DNA was discovered. According to the US Centres for Disease control, the cancer-worm is rare, and infection can be avoided by cooking raw vegetables and washing your hands.