This post could have as easily been titled “Die Hard: 1916.” Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was hard to kill. The first assassination attempt was disembowelment; it took him 10 weeks to recover. In the second, multifarious, and ultimately successful attempt, he was shot, poisoned, bludgeoned, and dumped in the water. An autopsy revealed death by drowning.

Later, he was disinterred and burned, and legend has it that he sat up before succumbing to the flames. Read his fascinating story on Wikipedia, if you dare!