Just announced on the news! 
American motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has died aged 69.
The international icon of the 1970s gained fame for his jumps over buses, live sharks and Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
Knievel in a 2001 awards ceremonyKnievel had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.
In 1999 the stuntman had a liver transplant after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion following one of his bone-shattering crashes.
In his heyday, the flamboyant showman toured the US in his red, white and blue leather jumpsuit, performing ever more daring stunts.
Knievel rode through fire walls, jumped over rattlesnakes and was towed at 200 mph behind race cars.
He steadily increased the length of his jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 46 metres (151 feet) across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
He cleared the fountains, but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.
American motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has died aged 69.
The international icon of the 1970s gained fame for his jumps over buses, live sharks and Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
Knievel in a 2001 awards ceremonyKnievel had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.
In 1999 the stuntman had a liver transplant after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion following one of his bone-shattering crashes.
In his heyday, the flamboyant showman toured the US in his red, white and blue leather jumpsuit, performing ever more daring stunts.
Knievel rode through fire walls, jumped over rattlesnakes and was towed at 200 mph behind race cars.
He steadily increased the length of his jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 46 metres (151 feet) across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
He cleared the fountains, but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.
