[Verginius Rufus]

So one possibility is that he died from drinking too much ice tea? What would they do if they determined that he was murdered? The man who was king of Denmark in 1601 is dead now.

If Brahe had lived a few years longer, he would have been able to use a telescope...all of his meticulous observations were made with the naked eye. But if he had lived longer, it might have been longer before Kepler had a chance to use his notes to make his discoveries--or maybe Kepler would never had a chance, and Mars' orbit would still be a circle with a lot of epicycles.

[stormer]

Lost his nose in a duel - pretty rough for one of the legends of astronomy.