Francis Bacon:

One of the most influential minds of the late 16th century. A statesman, a
philosopher, a writer, and a scientist, he was even rumored to have
written some of Shakespeare's plays.

How he died: Stuffing snow into a chicken

One afternoon in 1625, Bacon was watching a snowstorm and was struck by
the wondrous notion that maybe snow could be used to preserve meat in the
same way that salt was used. Determined to find out, he purchased a
chicken from a nearby village, killed it, and then, standing outside in
the snow, attempted to stuff the chicken full of snow to freeze it. The
chicken never froze, but Bacon did.

Excerpt from Joe Sherlock:

Every successful company has some skeletons in their closet. Some turkey of a product, service or idea which didn't pan out. Sometimes the flop is so big that it drives the company right out of business. But, many times failure evolves into something very successful.

Everybody thinks of the Edsel as a big failure. The fact is, the Edsel was part of Ford Motor Company's plan to expand their car line into the middle-priced automotive field. The same management group which developed the Edsel also developed the four-seater Ford Thunderbird. While automotive purists bemoaned the demise for the little two-seater T-bird, the four-seat model quadrupled sales. It defined the emerging market for the mid-priced personal luxury coupe; it was a success for almost 40 years. And it gave Ford increased market share in the medium-priced field. By introducing the Thunderbird and the Edsel simultaneously, Ford hedged their bets. The Edsel was a loser, but the T-Bird more than made up for the Edsel's losses.

Sharp beaks + balloons =
"One task I found hard to get allocated on was selling helium ballons which was quite sought after because you got to aimlessly wander about. I think I wasn't actually trusted. What is sad is they were right. Late one hot afternoon I got lucky and went out with ten or so.

However, being a bit knackered and fed up I decided I would keep to the quieter areas and try to avoid actually having to sell any and all that messing around. So I ducked into one of the tropical houses which is a bit pedestrian and boring. When people are also tired on a hot day, they just charge round, see the major exhibits and leave. I couldn't imagine too many people with kids were going to want to look at banana trees and so on. So I wander in and I'm chilling out on a bench when I hear a series of loud echoing explosions.

I'd miscalculated.

The tropical house was a bit dull but it did have some animals I'd forgotten about; free flying tropical birds. I ran out pursued by a swarm of humming birds and god knows what else and by the time I made the door I had only half my stock intact. The rest had been burst by the birds. I covered the difference out of my own pocket and didn't own up. But I never did get to sell balloons again despite remarks on how quickly I'd sold them." Source: http://www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2006/8/26/225623/033/15#15

Second Opinion?

One day, the great Chinese philosopher Shih Teng was consulted by the relatives of a wealthy man who had drowned in the Wei River. His corpse, it seemed, was being held for ransom by the man who had recovered it. "Wait," Teng advised. "No other family will pay for the body."
Some time later, the man who had found the corpse grew worried and also consulted Teng. "Wait," he advised the man, "for where else can they obtain the body?"

Hollywood Mighty

"Carl Reiner took us to the Bistro restaurant which had originally been Mike Romanoff's famous meeting place for the Hollywood mighty," Michael Bentine once recalled. "Clementina [Bentine's wife] was all agog to see the stars in their natural setting. While Carl went off to get us a table she asked a small, slim, elderly, bald-headed man sitting at the bar if he knew any of her screen idols.
"'Well,' he replied slowly, 'a few of the faces do come in here from time to time. Stick around.'

"Clementina then asked him why he was wearing an empty lipstick refill box on one of his fingers. He told her that he had hurt the finger in a car door and the little box protected it perfectly. By this time, Carl had come back and as he ushered us to our table my beloved wife said, 'Well, I don't see any stars yet, but that nice little man said they come in later.'

"'For your information, honey,' drawled Carl, enjoying every word, 'that nice little man is Frank Sinatra.'"