On this day in 1892, both sports and Canadian history were made. Dr. James Naismith, also known as the Canadian who invented the game of basketball, put his soon to be revolutionizing idea in the practice as the first ever basketball game was played at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. The game was played with nine players and ended 1-0. The first ever basket was knocked down from 25 ft on court that was about half the size of today's current NBA standards. Needless to say, the game has evolved quite a bit in its 100+ year history!

Today, basketball is one of the biggest sports in North America. Athletes such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James, just to a name a few, have used basketball to become not only superstar athletes, but worldwide celebrities as well.

There have been several variations of basketball of the last 100 years including street ball, handball, wheelchair basketball, and the high flying and short lived "Slamball".

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On January 13th, 1999 arguably the greatest basketball player in the history of the game retried for the 2nd time. After retiring briefly during the mid 90's to make an attempt to play professional baseball, Michael Jordan returned to the NBA where he led the Chicago Bulls to three more championships. After their last championship in 1998 (where Jordan hit the championship winning shot), times were beginning to change in Chicago. Head coach Phil Jackson, the man who coached all six of Jordan's Championship Teams, was leaving the team. Jordan's right hand man Scottie Pippen as well top rebounder Dennis Rodman were also leaving Chicago. At this point, Jordan decided to hang up his shoes and announced that he was retiring from Pro Basketball and that he had played his final game as a member of the Chicago Bulls.

Many thought that MJ was done for good until 2001 when he returned to the NBA as a member of the Washington Wizards. Jordan was a part owner of the Wizards and became inspired when his friend Mario Lemeiux returned to the NHL that year after overcoming Cancer. Jordan returned to the NBA for one final stint with the Wizards, however he never again played a game as a member of the Chicago Bulls.

While Jordan was an effective player with the Wizards, he was not the player he once was when he was with the Bulls. Because of this, many people signal his 2nd retirement in 1999 as the last time fans got to see Michael Jordan at his best.

At least people in Chicago see it that way!

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Where were you when Apple decided to become everyone's favourite company? While you probably can't remember where you were, you can certainly remember the date. January 9th has become a date that Apple fanatics from all over the world can relate to.

On this day in 2001, Apple Computer Inc. introduced its iTunes music management software at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Since then, iTunes Store has become the place for people all over the world to legally buy music, movies, TV shows, ebooks, podcasts, and more. On November 16, 2010, iTunes took another step forward as fans of "The Beatles" could download their entire catalog digitally via iTunes. Since 2001, over 10 billion tracks have been downloaded from the iTunes store.

On the same day in 2007, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone for the first time. The phone that can seemingly do everything has become the toy that every adult can't live without. There are four generations of iPhones, with the newest being the iPhone 4 which was released during the summer of 2010. The iPhone 4 is believed to be the best smartphone on the market and the Wall Street Journal claims that its "the best device of its class".

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On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley accomplished one of the greatest feats in music history. On December 29, 1956 the King had a remarkable 10 songs on the Billboard Top 100 Chart. This feat has not been accomplished since, and given the way musicians nowadays spread out the release of their singles, this is a feat that may never be accomplished ever again.

Songs such as "Hound Dog", "Love me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel" were among the Elvis hits that swarmed the Billboard charts at the end of 1956. What makes this feat even more incredible is that every single Elvis released between 1956-1958 reached #1 on the charts in the United States, thus monopolizing the top of the Billboard charts for the better part of two years.

Including both the United States and UK, Elvis has had 36 #1 hits in total.

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For the first time in the history of Time Magazine's "Man of the Year Award", a non human was the honorary recipient. The Personal Computer was the 1982 winner of "Man of the Year", and became one of the most controversial and talked about winners in the awards history. Time Magazine gives the award to "a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."
To this day, the Personal Computer is the only machine to have won the award. "The Endangered Earth" won the award in 1988 and in 2006 the award received its fair share of backlash when "You", a representation of the content creators of the world wide web, won the award. So if you're looking for a pick me up, take solace in the fact that you (along with billions of other people) were named Time Magazine's 2006 "Man of the Year"!

Lebron James, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Chilean Miners are among the finalists for the 2010 award.

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Happy birthday Eddie Vedder! The Pearl Jam front man turns 47 years young today as his legend grows with each passing year. After beginning his music career with Temple of the Dog, Vedder joined Pearl Jam upon their formation in 1990. With Pearl Jam, Vedder would become one of most recognizable front men in all of rock music, even finding himself on the front page of a 1993 issue of Time Magazine.

Vedder has written several iconic songs, including "Alive", "Evenflow", and "Jeremy". Jeremy was ranked the 11th best song of the 1990's by VH1, and was responsible for 4 MTV Video awards that Pearl Jam took home in 1993.

Vedder has worked with several mainstream artists in his career including "R.E.M.", "Bad Religion", "Neil Young", "The Ramones", and "The Who" just to name a few. Vedder was also featured on the soundtrack for "Eat Pray Love".

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When Fat Joe told everyone to "Lean Back", I don't think he had this in mind. After 11 years of construction and nearly $27 million, Italy's "Leaning Tower of Pisa" reopened to the public and still had its famous lean in tact. The construction was needed as the tower had to be restored to a safer angle. When Pisa reopened to the public, the monument leaned at an angle of 3.99 degrees (it leaned at 5.5 degrees prior to the restoration).

Construction of the original tower began in 1173, and spanned 177 years. The tower began to sink in 1178 when the workers progressed to the third floor. The reason it sank was primarily due to a weak foundation of subsoil, which many believed was a flawed design from the beginning. The construction workers caught a break when progress was halted for nearly a century due to battles between the Republic of Pisa and neighboring provinces. The time off allowed for the underlying soil to settle, as the tower would have certainly toppled had they continued to work.

The highest point of the Tower stands at 186.02ft, and it's weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons.

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