Adolphe Sax. This guy's life reads like a series of unfortunate events, and it's honestly a miracle he lived long enough to invent such an iconic instrument.

Born in early 19th century Belgium, Sax's troubles started when he fell out of the window of a two-story building at the tender age of 2. His skull fractured, but he somehow survived. A few years later, when he was just 6, he accidentally got into some acid and drank it. Yikes.

At 9, he managed to fall down a flight of stairs and topple onto a burning stove. When he was 11, he caught measles and spent 9 days in a coma. Barely a teenager, he broke his arm at 14 and got it caught in a carriage door.

You'd think adulthood would have given Sax a break, but nope. At 19, a brick fell on his head. He's also recorded to have swallowed a needle (I'm really not sure how one does that by accident). And when he was 23, he almost offed himself by drinking tainted wine.

But even after all that, at the age of 29, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone. Can you imagine if any of these horribly dangerous events had actually killed him? We wouldn't have the saxophone