| 17 Oct 1938 |
Robert Craig Knievel is born in the mining community of Butte, Montana. |
| 1953 |
Arrested for stealing hubcaps. |
| 1953 |
The name Evil Knievel is born. A prison guard jokes that he has local gangster "Awful (Bill) Knofeel and "Evil Knievel the hub cap thief in the same cell. The name was later legally changed to Evel to avoid upsetting religious fans. |
| Mar 1962 |
Falling during a motorbike race, Evel breaks his scapula and clavicle. |
| 1965 |
(Lake Washington) Trying to attract attention to his motorcycle dealership, Knievel leaps off a ramp and clear a mountain lion, but lands on a box of rattlesnakes, scattering the venomous snakes and the spectators. |
| 1966 |
Rode through a wall of fire and jumped two trucks in Barstow, California. |
| 30 May 1967 |
Daredevil Evel Knievel jumped 16 automobiles in a row in a motorcycle stunt at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, Georgia. |
| 1 Jan 1968 |
Attempting to clear the fountains at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, he lands awkwardly. His rag-doll somersaults leave him in a coma for 29-days with a shattered pelvis, fractured hip, and smashed right femur. Surgeons rebuild his leg with a two foot long, three inches wide strip of steel. |
| 20 Sep 1970 |
Successfully cleared 13 cars in Seattle, WA. |
| 8 Jan 1971 |
Again clearing 13 cars he drew a then record crowd to the Houston Astrodome. |
| 28 Feb 1971 |
Set World record at Ontario, CA by jumping 19 Dodge cars. |
| 10 May 1971 |
Both femurs are snapped after he tumbles clearing 13 Pepsi trucks in Yakima, Washington. |
| 3 Mar 1972 |
Cow Palace, San Francisco. Broken back and concussion. |
| 18 Feb 1973 |
Taking off from the highest ski-style jump ramp ever used he thrilled the crowd of 35,000 by flying over 50 cars stacked in the center of the Los Angeles Colliseum. |
| 20 Aug 1974 |
In his last jump before the famous do-or-die Snake River Canyon attempt, he soared 135 feet over 13 eight foot wide Mack Trucks at the Canadian National Exposition. |
| 8 Sep 1974 |
In Idaho, daredevil Evel Knievel climbs into his X-2 Skycycle (really just a rocket on wheels) and hits the ignition. The vehicle manages to clear the quarter-mile-wide Snake River Canyon, but then the parachute deploys prematurely and prevailing winds push him back into the chasm. Total ripoff. |
| 31 May 1975 |
Wembley Stadium, London. Evel crashes after clearing 13 double decker buses. Despite a broken pelvis, he gets on his feet to reach the microphone and announce he will never jump again. |
| 25 Oct 1975 |
Defiant after the Wembley crash, Evel successfully jumped 14 Greyhound buses at King's Island in Ohio. |
| 1976 |
Evel fails during a practice run over a tank of killer sharks at Chicago Amphitheater. Concussion and two broken arms. A cameraman loses an eye from a flying piece of shrapnel. |
| 1977 |
Evel batters publicist Sheldon Saltman with a baseball bat. Evel said stories of drug use in a book Saltman wrote are lies. "I broke his arms so he couldn't write anymore lies. I should have killed him," Evel said. Evel serves just six months of three years.
I had casts on both arms because they were both broken. The only reason I took a guy with me is because I was afraid he’d take a ball bat and beat the hell out of me. But I only broke his arms to teach him a lesson, to set an example – that you shouldn’t write lies about people. That’s all I did that for. What he said about my mother I should have killed him for. I should have killed that little bastard.
|
| 10 Oct 1994 |
Evel Knievel is arrested in a Sunnyvale, California topless bar for beating 22-year-old girlfriend Krystal Kennedy back at the Comfort Inn motel.
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| Jan 1998 |
Golf. A tumble near a bunker means Evel finally has to succumb to a hip replacement. |
| Jul 1998 |
Jacuzzi. Slipping on a wet railing, he falls and breaks a rib. |
| 28 Jan 1999 |
Knievel receives a new liver at Tampa General Hospital. |
