Remembering Mr. Evel Knievel's Caesar's Palace / Wild Turkey jump:

While in Las Vegas, Nevada, to watch Dick Tiger fight a middleweight title fight, Knievel first saw the fountains at Caesar's Palace and decided to jump them. To get an audience with the casino's CEO Jay Sarno, Knievel created a fictitious corporation called Evel Knievel Enterprises and three fictitious lawyers to make phone calls to Sarno. Knievel also placed phone calls to Sarno claiming to be from ABC-TV and Sports Illustrated inquiring about the jump. Sarno finally agreed to meet Knievel and the deal was set for Knievel to jump the fountains on December 31, 1967. After the deal was set, Knievel tried to get ABC to air the event live on Wide World of Sports. ABC declined, but said that if Knievel had the jump filmed and it was as spectacular as he said it would be, they would consider using it later.

Knievel used his own money to have actor/director John Derek produce a film of the Caesar's jump. To keep costs low, Derek used his then-wife, Linda Evans, as one of the camera operators. It was Evans who filmed Knievel's famous landing. On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed a single $100 dollar bet on the blackjack table, which he lost, stopped by the bar and got a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesar's staff, as well as two scantily clad showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel received a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.

A woman has proven through DNA testing that she is a child of the late James Brown, said a longtime adviser to the soul singer. The woman is the third person to determine through DNA testing done after Brown’s death that the singer is their father, Buddy Dallas told The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle on Monday.

Several explosions and a large fire rocked an industrial company near downtown Dallas Wednesday morning.

The business, Southwest Industrial Gases, Inc., is a welding supply company. It went up in flames at about 9:30 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) – John McCain's campaign today announced that Senator McCain has been let go from his role in the campaign. A senior McCain official stated that the Senator's parting was "amicable" but "we needed to tighten our belts, and we were spending a lot of money on his travel and support staff and didn't feel we were getting the best value for our dollar having him on the campaign." A high-level strategy meeting was being held to determine next steps, but the official insisted that the campaign was "still optimistic that we can be as competitive, if not moreso, without Senator McCain."

HT : Baseball Crank