On this day in 1916, Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was murdered by a group of nobles disturbed by his influence over the Romanovs. When Rasputin showed no ill effects after drinking an entire bottle of cyanide-laced wine and a plate of poison cakes, the killers shot him three times, beat him severely, and tossed his body in the Malaya Nevka River. Despite the poison, gunshot wounds, and numerous other injuries, it was reported that he was still alive when he went into the river.
