September 10, 2007: "Leave Britney Alone!"

September 10, 2007: At the dawn of the social media era, one of its first "viral videos" "goes viral."

The night before, the MTV Video Music Awards were held at the Palms Casino Resort in Paradise, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. The opening act was Britney Spears. In 1999, she burst onto the scene at the age of 17. Over the next 4 years, she became a bigger and bigger star.

In 2003, she broke up with singer Justin Timberlake, and her life began spinning out of control. In 2004, she married Kevin Federline, and they had 2 children. By the time of the 2007 VMAs, they were divorced, and she had been seen in public having shaved her head and smashed a car with a sledgehammer.

At the VMAs, she sang her new single, "Gimme More." She didn't wear much, which was hardly unusual for her: A black, jewel-encrusted bikini and black boots. But her once-sharp dancing ability appeared to have left her, her vocals were weak, and it looked like she was just going through the motions, wanting to be anywhere else on the planet except that stage. Vinay Menon of the Toronto Star wrote that she "looked hopelessly dazed."

The next person onstage was comedian Sarah Silverman, who called her "a woman who, at 25, had already accomplished in her life everything she ever will." Interviewed for a 2021 documentary about Britney and her struggle with mental illness, Silverman expressed regret for her comments. But she was hardly alone in ripping Britney and her performance.

A YouTube blogger then using the name Chris Crocker, appearing to be male and wearing makeup, but identifying as female, posted a video titled "Leave Britney alone!" (There was no Capital A in the title.) The next day, September 10, Crocker posted a video titled "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! (part 2)." She slammed gossip columnist Perez Hilton and reality TV star Simon Cowell for their comments about Britney.

She cited the example of actress-model Anna Nicole Smith, who had died the preceding February, only 39 years old, after a troubled personal life, and said she didn't want Britney to end up like Anna Nicole. She ended the video almost completely hysterical in her defense of her pop idol: "All you people care about is readers and making money off of her. She's a human! Leave Britney alone!" The video got over 2 million views within 24 hours.

Some people didn't get it, thinking that the video was performance art, or satire, rather than the sincere defense of Britney that it was. And the parodies abounded, ranging from defenses of President George W. Bush to Bryan McCabe, a Toronto Maple Leafs player whose "own goal" cost his team a goal on October 15, 2007: Steve Dangle, a YouTuber and Leafs fan, yelled, "The Leafs haven't won the Cup in 40 years? He's only 32! Leave Bryan McCabe alone! Go, Leafs, go!"

Britney was involuntarily placed in a conservatorship. She had successful albums in 2008 and 2011, and in 2013 she began a 4-year concert residency at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. I was surprised by this, until I did the math: She was 31, and when Elvis Presley became the 1st rock star with a Vegas residency, he was 34. So it wasn't that odd.

In 2019, she began to fight back against her conservatorship, because all her money was going to her parents. Her fans began the online #FreeBritney movement. In 2021, the conservatorship was terminated, and her life became her own again.

In 2015, Chris Crocker deactivated her YouTube channel. In 2021, now using the name Cara Cunningham and identifying as female, she created an OnlyFans account to reach her fans. 

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September 10, 2007 was a Monday. This was also the day the New England Patriots' "Spygate" scandal went public. I have a separate entry for that event.

The NFL held 2 Monday Night Football games. The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati. And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 20-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Óliver Pérez outpitched Tim Hudson. David Wright hit a home run.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Scott Kazmir pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and 2 relievers completed the shutout with no more hits. David Ortiz appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Ryan Howard doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Florida Marlins, 5-4 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat Milwaukee Brewers, 9-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Tony Armas Jr. pitched 6 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and 2 relievers completed the 4-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Yes, both Chicago teams were at home on the same day; no, they didn't both win.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Bengie Molina hit 2 home runs for the Giants. Barry Bonds, in his last month as an active player, went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-5.

* And the New York Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled to play.

April 23, 2005: The 1st YouTube Video

April 23, 2005: At 8:31 PM Pacific Time, 11:31 Eastern Time, "Me at the zoo" becomes the 1st video uploaded to YouTube.

It is uploaded by Jawed Karim, a co-founder of YouTube. Karim, then 25 years old, described the elephants in the San Diego Zoo, in front of a video camera operated by a friend from high school, Yakov Lapitsky.

The video is 18 seconds long, with Karim saying, "All right, so here we are in front of the, uh, elephants. And the cool thing about these guys is that, is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks. And that's, that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

Karim turned out to be much better as a businessman than as a commentator. With Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, whom he met while working at PayPal, he founded YouTube. By October 2006, it had already become so successful that Google bought it from them for $1.65 billion.

Born in Germany to a German mother and a Bangladeshi father, Karim went to high school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and got degrees from the University of Illinois and Stanford. After selling YouTube, he got in on the ground floors of Airbnb and Reddit.

As of April 23, 2022, the original video has over 222 million views.

With the founding of YouTube, of Facebook the year before, and of Twitter the year after, social media grew so much, allowing people to post their own content -- essentially, running their own TV/film studios and news channels -- that, in 2006, Time magazine put a "mirror panel" on their cover, and named "You" as Person of the Year. So, some people altered their online profile to read "Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2006" -- because, technically, it was true.

*

April 23, 2005 was a Saturday. The following Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 10-2 at the old Yankee Stadium. Jaret Wright got rocked, and future Yankee Mark Teixeira hit 2 home runs for the Rangers.

* The New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals, 10-5 at Shea Stadium.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-1 at Turner Field in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2 at Dolphins Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 1-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Larry Walker singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Aaron Rowand singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-6 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 9-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2 at SBC Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

Football was out of season. And the NHL season had been canceled due to the team owners locking out the players. However, the NBA Playoffs got underway on this day:

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-85 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 102-82 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 98-86 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Sacramento Kings, 87-82 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

March 17, 2012: The Fabrice Muamba Game

March 17, 2012: One of the scariest moments in the history of sports occurs, leaving fans around the world on edge for hours. It was one of the earliest such moments spread worldwide by social media.

Fabrice Ndala Muamba was born on April 6, 1988 in Kinshasa, Zaire -- now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1994, the family fled the civil war-torn country and moved to England. In 2005, Fabrice signed to play for North London soccer team Arsenal as a midfielder. But, with the team having a surplus of midfielders, he made only 2 first-team appearances, and was sent on loan to Birmingham City in 2006, and they took him on full-time in 2007. In 2008, they sold him to Manchester-area team Bolton Wanderers. In 2009-10, he was named the club's Player of the Year.

On March 17, 2012, Bolton were playing an FA Cup Quarterfinal against Tottenham Hotspur, at White Hart Lane, the North London home of "Spurs." The game was level, 1-1 in the 41st minute, when Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on the pitch.

Referee Howard Webb stopped the match, and medical personnel surrounded Muamba, including Dr. Andrew Deaner, a cardiologist attending the game as a fan. At first, the stands were nearly silent, with a low murmur from the fans, as most were not sure about what had happened, as the attendees to Muamba's condition blocked their view of him.

Within 4 minutes, the home fans began chanting his name, a rare tribute from Spurs fans to any opponent: "FAB-rice Mu-AM-ba!" This was a traditional one-minute tribute, and the alternating of near-silence and the chant, minute-by-minute, made for compelling TV viewing.

Finally, with Bolton manager Owen Coyle and Captain Kevin Davies riding with him, Muamba was taken by ambulance to the London Chest Hospital. It was estimated that he received cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for 45 minutes before his heart resumed beating on its own.

Because it seemed like he had died on worldwide television, and then because he'd been saved by the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and the doctors after all, the whole world came together through social media in support of someone most of them had never heard of before -- a black immigrant from Africa to a mostly-white country, no less.

Webb finally ordered the match abandoned. The game was made up on March 27, with Tottenham winning, 3-1. They lost the Semifinal to Chelsea.

Bolton asked the Premier League to postpone their next game, at home to Birmingham team Aston Villa, set for 3 days later. The League contacted Villa management, which graciously raised no objection, and the postponement was made.

By March 19, Muamba's heart was beating without medication. He was released from the hospital on April 16, with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Advised by his doctors to retire from playing, Muamba became a TV analyst for his sport. As of 2022, he is a coach in Bolton's academy. He has only played once since, in 2015, in a testimonial match for a friend, Ian Goodison.

*

March 17, 2012 was a Saturday. Baseball was in Spring Training. American-style football was out of season. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 102-88 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the New Orleans Hornets, 102-94 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Charlotte Bobcats beat the Toronto Raptors, 107-103 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-99 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 89-80 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Boston Celtics, 98-91 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors, 99-92 in overtime at the EnergySolutions Arena (as the Delta Center was then known) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Houston Rockets, 95-91 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 11 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders bear the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 in a shootout at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Yes, it hosted the Devils and the Nets on the same day. A month later, that would no longer be a problem, as the Nets finished their regular season, missed the Playoffs, and moved to Brooklyn.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-3 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the HP Pavilion at San Jose (now the SAP Center). Martin Havlát scored the winning goal with 1:37 left in overtime.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators, 4-2 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks, the Dallas Stars, the Calgary Flames, the Washington Capitals, the Edmonton Oilers, the Arizona Coyotes, the Anaheim Ducks and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.

February 4, 2004: Facebook Goes Live

February 4, 2004: Facebook is launched in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, who screwed over Divya Narendra and the twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. This was, of course, before Zuckerberg screwed over America by helping Cambridge Analytica help steal the 2016 Presidential election.

Narendra did all right for himself, having founded SumZero, an online investment company. The Winklevoss Twins got rich, too, even more so in the recent cryptocurrency craze that shows no signs of fading.

Time magazine named Zuckerberg its Person of the Year for 2010, citing Facebook's role in the growth of social media. Facebook's IPO, launched on May 18, 2012 at $38.00, dropped to $27.72 by June 1, with no help at all from Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. But it rebounded: On February 4, 2022, a single share of Facebook stock closed at $237.09.

In a 2018 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Elon Musk, while "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Zuckerberg.

UPDATE: In hindsight, they did this battle way too early: Musk looked like something of a hero at the time, but has since revealed himself to be even more villainous than Zuckerberg. And while each character accused the other of racism, Musk's has since been revealed to be truly abhorrent.

One of the ERB Musk's complaints was about artificial intelligence -- "AI." The real Musk has expressed concern over it, which won him a lot of followers. In 2025, Time named "The Architects of AI" as their collective "Persons of the Year." Two of them were Zuckerberg (a 2nd selection) and Musk. The others were Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Fei-Fei Li of ImageNet, and Lisa Su of AMD.

*

February 4, 2004 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football had just wrapped up, with the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. There were 10 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Miami Heat, 99-88 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford New Jersey.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Boston Celtics, 95-86 at the Fleet Center (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Washington Wizards, 103-101 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 97-89 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta. Sharif Abdur-Rahim had 32 points and 14 rebounds.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the New Orleans Hornets, 113-104 at the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center).

* The Houston Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 103-89 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Orlando Magic, 110-90 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-106 in overtime at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Mortgage Arena) in Cleveland. For the Lakers, Shaquille O'Neal scored 37 points, and Gary Payton scored 30. Kobe Bryant was injured and did not play. LeBron James, then a rookie, scored 32 for the Cavs.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz, 95-79 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 101-97 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

There were 6 games played in the NHL that night:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Minnesota Wild, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 5-1 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 1-0 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-4 at the Glendale Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Olli Jokinen scored the game-winning goal, with 1:38 left in overtime.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-3 at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known) in Edmonton.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Carolina Panthers, 3-2 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

January 15, 2001: Wikipedia Begins Operation

January 15, 2001: Wikipedia begins operation. According to its own Wikipedia page (I've removed the footnotes):

Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger; Sanger coined its name as a blending of "wiki" and "encyclopedia". Wales was influenced by the "spontaneous order" ideas associated with Friedrich Hayek and Austrian School of economics, after being exposed to these ideas by Austrian economist and Mises Institute Senior Fellow Mark Thornton. Initially available only in English, versions in other languages were quickly developed. Its combined editions comprise more than 58 million articles, attracting around 2 billion unique device visits per month, and more than 17 million edits per month (1.9 edits per second). In 2006, Time magazine stated that the policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the "biggest (and perhaps best) encyclopedia in the world".

Wikipedia has received praise for its enablement of the democratization of knowledge, extent of coverage, unique structure, culture, and reduced amount of commercial bias, but criticism for exhibiting systemic bias, particularly gender bias against women and alleged ideological bias. Its reliability was frequently criticized in the 2000s, but has improved over time and has been generally praised in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Its coverage of controversial topics such as American politics and major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic has received substantial media attention. It has been censored by world governments, ranging from specific pages to the entire site. It has become an element of popular culture, with references in books, films and academic studies. In 2018, Facebook and YouTube announced that they would help users detect fake news by suggesting fact-checking links to related Wikipedia articles.

I could write this blog without using Wikipedia. But it would be a lot harder.

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January 15, 2001 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. There were 12 NBA games played that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 104-82 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 84-78 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 84-79 at the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson scored 35 points.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Washington Wizards, 101-95 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-104 at the TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 89-74 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 107-102 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Paul Pierce scored 42 points.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 116-105 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 122-111 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 116-104 in overtime at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 113-112 in overtime at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors, 107-101 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland).

And there were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena (the Civic Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The League's 2 new expansion teams played at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-0.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).