Evel Knievel (born October 17, 1938—died November 30, 2007) was an American motorcycle daredevil who captivated audiences with his death-defying stunts. In 1968 he performed perhaps his most famous stunt—a spectacular jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, in which he botched the landing and fractured his skull; he was comatose for a month afterward. Other well-publicized stunts included jumping over some 50 cars at the Los Angeles Coliseum (1973), a failed attempt to soar over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho using a rocket-powered motorcycle called the Sky-Cycle (1974), jumping over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London (1975), and leaping over a shark-filled tank in Chicago (1976).

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica