Britannica On This Day October 17 2023

This Day in History: October 17

Featured Event

1968







The American action film Bullitt was released; it features Steve McQueen in what many consider his definitive role and is also known for its iconic car-chase sequence.


Bullitt
film by Yates [1968]




Bullitt, American action film, released in 1968, that features Steve McQueen in what many consider his definitive role. The film is also known for its iconic car-chase sequence. Frank Bullitt (played by McQueen) is a world-weary police lieutenant in San Francisco who is tasked with guarding the mob informant Johnny Ross (Pat Renella). The assignment comes at the request of Sen. Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn), who is chairing the subcommittee on crime before which Ross is scheduled to testify. When Ross is mysteriously killed on his watch, Bullitt sets out to find the murderers and clear his reputation. He eventually ...(100 of 257 words)


Steve McQueen, in full Terence Stephen McQueen, (born March 24, 1930, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.—died November 7, 1980, Juarez, Mexico), macho, laconic American movie star of the 1960s and ’70s. Cool and stoical, his loner heroes spoke through actions and rarely with words.
McQueen drifted through odd jobs and three years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps before he began performing at New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952. He did occasional theatre work and made his screen debut with a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). His first starring role was in the camp horror classic The Blob (1958), and that same year he earned the lead role of a bounty hunter on the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive, which ran until 1961.


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Featured Biography

Evel Knievel
American stuntman







Evel Knievel, original name Robert Craig Knievel, (born October 17, 1938, Butte, Montana, U.S.—died November 30, 2007, Clearwater, Florida), American motorcycle daredevil who captivated audiences with his death-defying stunts.
As a youth, Knievel was often jailed for stealing hubcaps and motorcycles, including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle at age 13. His brushes with the law led to a popular belief that the police gave him the nickname “Evil Knievel,” which he later modified to “Evel” and took as his legal name. After dropping out of high school, Knievel took several odd jobs that included working in the copper mines of Butte, Montana, where he caused a power outage by crashing an earthmover into the city’s main power line while attempting to do wheelies.



Knievel performed his first motorcycle stunt in his late 20s in order to stimulate business for a motorcycle shop that he co-owned; as part of the stunt, he jumped over rows of parked cars, a caged cougar, and a box of rattlesnakes. After performing (1965–68) with a troupe called Evel Knievel’s Motorcycle Daredevils, he decided to pursue a solo career. Clad in his trademark star-spangled red, white, and blue jumpsuits, Knievel made more than 300 jumps during his career and claimed to have broken nearly every bone in his body. 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).


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