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Bobby Leach was the second person to go over Niagara Falls in a Barrel. Born in Cornwall, England in 1858, Leach went over the falls in a specially designed “barrel” that he made himself. Although he survived the fall, Leach sustained two broken kneecaps, a broken jaw, and other injuries.
After recovering in hospital, Leach spent the next years of his life touring and giving lectures about his feat, often times posing with his barrel. While in New Zealand in 1926 on a lecture tour, Leach slipped on an orange peel and cut his leg. The wound became infected and required amputation. After doctors removed Leach’s leg, Leach was too weakened to recover and he died on April 26 of that year.
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The United Kingdom on December 8, 2020 became the first nation to begin widespread distribution of a working Covid-19 vaccine. At the University Hospital in Coventry, in what hopes to be the beginning of the end for the pandemic that effectively shut down the world for most of 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world outside…read more
It didn’t have as compelling a birth as the first Special Air Service regiment. It didn’t have its great founder driving point in a souped-up jeep during attacks on German air bases. It didn’t have the romance of the desert as its initial stomping grounds. About the only thing it seemed to have going for it was the reputation of…read more
Several cities in the U.S. had a dark smoggy cloud come over them last week as the American Lung Association (ALA) released its annual State of the Air report. The sobering and slightly depressing report uses data on particulate matter — otherwise known as “soot” — and ground-level ozone — otherwise known as “smog” — that was collected between 2015…read more
When it comes to polar exploration, history is the mother of all excursion. To close out 2018, Louis Rudd became the second person to complete a solo crossing of the continent of Antarctica. In what seems a repeat of the Shackleton/Amundsen race to the pole (that was a race to the pole and not a traversal of the continent), the…read more
This being the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended major fighting in WWI, SilverMedals.net presents “second” facts about the Great War.
The legal sale of recreational marijuana began today (10/17/18) in Canada, the second country to do so. More than just decriminalizing its use, or limiting its use or sale to specific places, people can now buy, cultivate, and use marijuana to their heart’s content (if their hearts are content with whatever limits their provinces may impose, that is). None of…read more
