Senator Roscoe Conkling left his Wall Street office in route to the New York Club during the Great Blizzard of 1888.  When he reached Union Square he became stranded in a snowdrift and struggled to free himself from the surrounding snow. After arriving at the club, he had a drink and collapsed, dying the next day.  C. H. McDonald stumbled through the same blinding snowstorm when he collided with a hard object that left a gash on his head.  He picked through the pile of snow and determined that the cause of the accident was the hoof of a dead horse. He died later that day.Thereafter, he was recognized as the only man ever to be kicked in the head by a dead horse.