History

Seconds of WWI

Seconds of WWI

11/11/2018

Updated on 12/31/2018

This being the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended major fighting in WWI, SilverMedals.net presents “second” facts about the Great War.

Armored Command — Burt Reynolds’ Second Feature Film

Armored Command — Burt Reynolds’ Second Feature Film

09/17/2018

Updated on 09/06/2022

By the time Burt Reynolds signed up for the movie Armored Command (Allied Artists, 1961), his second full-length feature movie, he had already put together a respectable resumé as a stage and TV actor having appeared in at least 15 television shows in not only bit parts but in regular roles. An ex-athlete from Florida with a rugged sexiness that…read more

Astronaut Alan Bean and His “Second” Career

Astronaut Alan Bean and His “Second” Career

05/29/2018

Updated on 09/24/2022

When Alan Bean retired from NASA and decided to become a full-time professional fine-art artist, he had to shed his aeronautical engineering and astronaut self to allow his inner artistic vision come through to the canvas. Not an easy task for the former Apollo 12 astronaut, one of only 12 men to have walked on the surface of the moon,…read more

“‘Til There Was You”

“‘Til There Was You”

03/08/2018

Updated on 09/06/2022

Second feats and events can come to me from anywhere here at SilverMedals.net, and this one comes from an interesting book review in the The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik who wrote about composer Andrew Lloyd Weber’s new memoir, Unmasked. In the article, Gopnik expounds on the reasons as to why people love/hate Weber, his journey, his works, etc., but…read more

The History of K2 — The World’s Second-Highest Mountain

The History of K2 — The World’s Second-Highest Mountain

02/22/2018

Updated on 09/06/2022

Attempts to summit K2 begin in Islamabad. From there you will spend a day driving in a rickety bus toward the town of Skardu on the dangerous Karakoram Highway (and they’re using the term “highway” VERY loosely here). You’ll probably have an armed guard wth your party because aside from the road itself being dangerous, there are people on it who…read more

Elite Polish K2 Climbers

Elite Polish K2 Climbers

01/28/2018

Updated on 10/08/2018

Last May, SM did a blog post on a team of mountain climbers from Poland who were going to attempt a winter ascent on K2, little did anyone know that those same climbers would end up being heroes. A multi-national climbing party was attempting to summit Nanga Parbat, the second-highest peak in Pakistan at 26,660ft (8,125m), and the ninth-highest mountain…read more

George Lawrence Price — Second-to-Last Soldier Killed in WWI

George Lawrence Price — Second-to-Last Soldier Killed in WWI

11/11/2017

Updated on 11/11/2018

The armistice1 that ended the fighting in World War I was signed by representatives from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, at 5AM on 11/11/1918, in a railroad carriage in Compiègne, France, but the agreement didn’t go into effect for another six hours. WWI would end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, which was fine for those who…read more

John F. Kennedy and the Second Gunman

John F. Kennedy and the Second Gunman

10/26/2017

Updated on 09/24/2022

The National Archives today are due to release somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 never-before-seen documents along with the full versions of at least 30,000 other redacted documents that had previously been released all pertaining to the November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. As new findings emerge from these documents, I thought it would be a good…read more

German Passports 2017

German Passports 2017

10/25/2017

Updated on 12/27/2018

A recent report issued by Arton Capital, a global financial advisory firm, shows that Germany owns the second most powerful passport in the world. You can see for yourself by having a look at the Passport Index. This updated index was covered by several major news publications including Business Insider, CNN, and the Telegraph, except they weren’t focusing on the second most…read more