Person of the Year 2007

Robert Craig Knievel Jr. died in November after 69 years, which by all rights is more than twice as long as it should have taken him. The motorcycle stuntman was known for his astonishing leaps but even more for his crashes. With every boast, world record and broken bone, he became a bigger figure and graced more lunch boxes — particularly after his fall, on his rocket-boosted Skycycle, into Idaho's Snake River Canyon. That which did not kill Knievel — as he proved more literally than most — only made him, and his myth, stronger.