America has lost an icon.(CNN) -- Evel Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil whose stunts -- including an attempted leap over Idaho's Snake River Canyon -- made him a popular cultural figure, is dead, according to his Web site, evelknievel.com. He was 69.Captain America has a terrific write-up of this story HERE.
Over his career, Knievel was said to have broken practically every bone in his body -- some multiple times. With his red-white-and-blue jumpsuits, shock of hair and stone-faced mein, he was a fixture on ABC's program "Wide World of Sports" in the 1970s, his stunts perennial ratings-grabbers.
Knievel's most famous stunt was probably an attempt to jump the quarter-mile wide Snake River Canyon in 1974 on his rocket-powered "Sky-Cycle." (He had hoped to jump the Grand Canyon, but couldn't get permission.) The attempt failed, but the publicity was priceless. His fame even spawned a movie, "Viva Knievel!" in 1977.
Robert Craig Knievel was born October 17, 1938, in Butte, Montana. (H/T - CNN)
I can still remember watching the Snake River Canyon jump with my Dad. Curiously, I had just blogged about Knievel yesterday, and today he is dead? Does this blog have the power supreme? Let's find out . . .
Whoopi Goldberg told Larry King that she would be retiring from acting in October . . .
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