DECEMBER 1923: New Castle, Pennsylvania, a man was killed while trying to crack open a coconut with the butt end of a loaded revolver. The gun discharged and the man was shot in the abdomen.
1930: One of the most unusual variations occurred in India. Newspapers across the world reported that a schoolboy in India had been killed by a "magic" or "enchanted" coconut.[48] In an effort to determine who had taken a book from a classroom, an elementary school teacher at Harnahalli required each of his students to touch a coconut bearing a namam, a religious symbol. The teacher claimed that the one who took the book would face "divine wrath" upon touching the coconut. One student resisted, but was forced to touch the coconut. He reportedly contracted a high fever, fell into delirium and died within an hour.
APRIL 1983: Coconut was cited as the cause of death for a female goose-beaked whale. The husk from a coconut became lodged in its intestine and the whale beached itself on a sandbar at Siesta Key, Florida.
1944: Japanese troops were using "coconut bombs" in defending against the American invasion of Leyte. Col. Allan Feldman reported that the bombs were created by placing hand grenades and picric acid inside hollowed-out coconuts. The coconuts were then sealed with wax, attached to a string and thrown at the American troops.
JULY 2004: 55-year-old Sri Lankan man was killed when he was struck on the head by a coconut. Police concluded that the blow was not the result of a coconut falling from a tree, but rather had been sustained in a fight that developed after the victim invited "a group of friends to his hut to enjoy a hooch party".
APRIL 1992: an 81-year-old man was killed in Malaysia when he was pinned under the trunk of a coconut tree that had been uprooted by high winds. His family noted that he had been employed as a "coconut plucker" and had previously survived a fall from a coconut tree.
MAY 2006: Man and a boy were killed by falling coconut palm trees during a tropical storm in the Philippines.
AUGUST 2011: 56-year-old man was killed after an entire coconut tree toppled onto him while he was motorcycling in Kampung Baru Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
AUGUST 2020: 37-year-old man died of severe head injuries after a coconut tree he was hired to help cut down fell on him. The incident occurred in a roadside gully near Banana Beach, along the coastal road from Surin to Nai Thon, Thailand.
Other reports credit the strength of the coconut palm trees with saving the lives of persons who have been tied to the trees for safety during high wind or tsunami events.