Real Madrid C.F.

Early years (1902–1945)

Real Madrid's origins go back to when football was introduced to Madrid by the academics and students of the Institución libre de enseñanza, which included several Oxbridge graduates. They founded Football Club Sky in 1897, playing on Sunday mornings at Moncloa. It split into two clubs in 1900: New Foot-Ball de Madrid and Club Español de Madrid. The latter club split again in 1902, resulting in the formation of Madrid Football Clubon 6 March 1902. Three years after its foundation, in 1905, Madrid FC won its first title after defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final. The club became one of the founding sides of the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 4 January 1909, when club president Adolfo Meléndez signed the foundation agreement of the Spanish FA. After moving between grounds the team moved to the Campo de O'Donnell in 1912. In 1920, the club's name was changed to Real Madrid after King Alfonso XIII granted the title of Real (Royal) to the club.

In 1929, the first Spanish football league was founded. Real Madrid led the first league season until the last match, a loss to Athletic Bilbao, meant they finished runners-up to Barcelona. Real Madrid won its first League title in the 1931–32 season. Real won the League again the following year, becoming the first side to have won the championship twice.

Lionel Messi

Messi was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, to parents Jorge Horacio Messi, a factory worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner.His paternal family originates from the Italian city of Ancona, from which his ancestor, Angelo Messi, emigrated to Argentina in 1883. He has two older brothers named Rodrigo and Matías as well as a sister named María Sol. At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local club coached by his father Jorge. In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys who were based in his home city Rosario. At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. Primera División club River Plate showed interest in Messi's progress, but did not have enough money to pay for treatment for his condition as it cost $900 a month. Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, had been made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida, Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial. Barcelona signed him after watching him play, offering to pay for the medical bills if he was willing to move to Spain. His family moved to Europe and he started in the club's youth teams.

Neil Armstrong

Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is an American aviator and a former astronaut,test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person ever to set foot on the Moon.

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and saw action in theKorean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he flew over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft. As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and theLockheed F-104A Starfighter. He also flew the Bell X-1B, Bell X-5, North American X-15, F-105 Thunderchief, F-106 Delta Dart, B-47 Stratojet, KC-135 Stratotanker and Paresev. He graduated from Purdue University and the University of Southern California.

His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot, becoming one of the first U.S. civilians to fly in space (Joseph Albert Walker was the first US civilian in space several years earlier). On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2½ hours exploring while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Harry potter (Film)

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quest to overcome the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aim is to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people, and who seeks to destroy all those who stand in his way, such as Harry's parents.

Since the 30 June 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone(retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone. As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.

A series of many genres, including fantasy and coming of age (with elements of mystery,thriller, and romance), it has many cultural meanings and references. According to Rowling, the main theme is death, although it is primarily considered to be a work ofchildren's literature. There are also many other themes in the series, such as love and prejudice.

Simple Plan (Band)

Formation (1999–2002)

Simple Plan began in 1996 with the formation of a band named Reset by friends Pierre Bouvier,Charles-André "Chuck" Comeau, Philippe Jolicoeur, and Adrian White. Reset toured around Canada with bands such as MXPX, Ten Foot Pole, and Face to Face, but only managed to gain modest popularity. The debut album, No Worries, was released in 1999, and Comeau left soon after to go to college. Two years later he met with high school friends Jean-François "Jeff" Stinco and Sébastien Lefebvre who were in separate bands of their own, and combined to create the band. Meanwhile, Reset released a second CD, No Limits (the two CDs would be re-released as a single CD in 2006, with liner note comments from Bouvier and Comeau). In late 1999, Comeau and Bouvier reacquainted at a Sugar Ray concert and Bouvier left Reset soon after to join Comeau. David Desrosiers replaced Bouvier in Reset, but he too left the band six months later. This allowed Bouvier, who had doubled as the band's front man and bassist, to concentrate on the singing.

The origin of the band's name is obscure. Band members have given various comical responses on this point, including that the band was their simple plan to avoid obtaining a job at McDonald's, or similar fast food entities. However, most likely, the name is derived from the movie "A Simple Plan", or the Piebald song "Just a Simple Plan".

Avenged Sevenfold (band)

Avenged Sevenfold is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ.

Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, which included primarily screamed vocals. The band changed their style on their third album and first major label release, City of Evil, which featured more of a hard rockstyle. The band continued to explore new sounds with their self-titled release and enjoyed continued mainstream success before their drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, died of heart disease and combined effect of drugs and alcohol in his body in 2009. Despite his death, the band continued on with help of now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoyand released and toured in support of their fifth album Nightmare in 2010 which debuted on the top spot of the Billboard 200, a first for the band.

To date, Avenged Sevenfold has released five studio albums, one live album/compilation/DVD, and fifteen singles. The band themselves have received much credit for their worldwide mainstream success and were most notably proclaimed as one of the leaders and key bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and were featured as second place on Ultimate Guitar's Top Ten Bands of the Decade.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770–26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. The crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romanticeras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.

Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, Beethoven moved to Vienna in his early 20s, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf.

Computer

Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts (September 13, 1941 – April 1, 2010) was an American engineer, entrepreneur and medical doctor who designed the first commercially successful personal computer in 1975. He is most often known as "the father of the personal computer". He founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970 to sell electronics kits to model rocketry hobbyists, but the first successful product was an electronic calculator kit that was featured on the cover of the November 1971 issue of Popular Electronics. The calculators were very successful and sales topped one million dollars in 1973.

A brutal calculator price war left the company deeply in debt by 1974. Roberts then developed the Altair 8800 personal computer that used the new Intel 8080 microprocessor. This was featured on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, and hobbyists flooded MITS with orders for this computer kit.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen joined MITS to develop software and Altair BASIC was Microsoft's first product. Roberts sold MITS in 1977 and retired to Georgia where he farmed, studied medicine and eventually became a small-town doctor.

Facebook

Facebook (stylized facebook) is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of January 2011, Facebook has more than 600 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone who declares themselves to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.

Friendster

Friendster was founded by computer programmer Jonathan Abrams and Peter Chin in 2002 in Morgan Hill, California before the creation, launch and adoption of MySpace, Facebook, and others.

Friendster was founded to create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios.

Friendster.com went live in 2002 and was quickly adopted by three million users within the first few months.Publications including Time, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly,US Weekly and Spin wrote about Friendster's success and the founder appeared on magazine covers and late-night talk shows. Friendster's rapid success inspired a generation of niche social networking websites including Dogster and Elfster.

As of 2008 Friendster had a membership base of more than 115 million registered users and continued to grow in Asia. According to Alexa, the site has suffered an exponential decline in traffic in America since 2009. From a peak 40 ranking it reached 800 in November 2010. Most people have since attributed this decline to the rise of Facebook, a rival social networking site.

In August 2008, Friendster hired ex-Google executive Richard Kimber as the CEO. Kimber is focusing on Friendster's expansion in Asia.

On December 9, 2009, it was announced that Friendster has been acquired by MOL Global, one of Asia's biggest Internet companies. MOL Global is funded by one of Malaysia's successful businessmen, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, Chairman and Chief Executive of Berjaya Corporation Berhad.

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer,screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of modern times, and a cultural icon.

Lee was born in San Francisco, California to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee emigrated to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education. It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts filmto a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well. He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973), directed by Robert Clouse; and The Game of Death (1978), directed by Robert Clouse.

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films. He initially trained in Wing Chun, but he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead to utilise useful techniques from various sources in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

Jackie Chan

Chan was born on 7 April 1954, in Victoria Peak, in the former Crown colony of Hong Kong, as Chan Kong-sang to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed Paopao (Chinese: 炮炮, literally meaning "Cannonball") because the high-energy child was always rolling around. Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.

Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as theThree Brothers or Three Dragons.

At the age of 8, he appeared with some of his fellow "Little Fortunes," in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (1962), with Li Li Hua playing his mother. Chan appeared with Li again the following year, in The Love Eterne (1963) and had a small role in King Hu's 1966 film, Come Drink with Me. In 1971, after an appearance as an extra in another Kong Fu film, A Touch of Zen, Chan began his adult career in the film industry, initially signing to Chu Mu's Great Earth Film Company. At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung (Chinese: 陳元龍). He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973. Due to the commercial failures in his early ventures into films and trouble finding stunt work, in 1975 Chan starred in a comedic adult film, All in the Family, which features Jackie Chan's first and possibly only nude sex scene filmed to date. It is also the only film he has made to date that did not feature a single fight scene or stunt sequence.

Chan joined his parents in Canberra in 1976, where he briefly attended Dickson College and worked as a construction worker. A fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing, earning Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan stuck with him ever since. In addition, in the late 90s, Chan changed his Chinese name to Fong Si-lung (Chinese: 房仕龍), since his father's original surname was Fong.

Movie Transformer

Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. The film, which combines computer animation with live-action, is directed by Michael Bayand produced by Steven Spielberg. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager involved in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two factions of alien robots who can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery. The Decepticons desire control of the AllSpark, the object that created their robotic race, with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth. Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson and John Turturro also star, while voice-actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively.

Producers Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto developed the project in 2003, with a treatmentwritten by DeSanto. Executive producer Steven Spielberg came on board the following year, hiring Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The United States Armed Forces and General Motors(GM) loaned vehicles and aircraft during filming, which saved money for the production and added realism to the battle scenes. Hasbro organized an enormous promotional campaign for the film, making deals with hundreds of companies. This advertising blitz included a viral marketing campaign, coordinated releases of prequel comic books, toys and books, as well asproduct placement deals with GM and eBay.

Transformers was a box office success despite mixed critical reaction to the radical redesigns of the characters, and reviews criticizing the focus on the humans at the expense of the robots. It is the thirty-seventh most successful film released and the fifth most successful of 2007, grossing approximately US$709 million worldwide. The film won four awards from theVisual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound Editing.

The film spawned a sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was released on June 24, 2009 to negative reviews but was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third and final film is set to release on July 1, 2011 in 3-D

Badminton (Datuk Lee Chong Wei)

Datuk Lee Chong Wei born October 21, 1982 in Georgetown, Penang) is a professional badminton player from Malaysia who resides in Bukit Mertajam. Lee won the silver medal in the 2008 Olympic Games, thus becoming the first Malaysian to reach the final of the men's singles event and ending Malaysia's Olympic medal drought since the 1996 Games. This achievement also earned him the title Datuk, and a description by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as a national hero.

As a singles player, Lee was ranked first worldwide on August 21, 2008. He is the third Malaysian men's singles shuttler after Rashid Sidek and Roslin Hashim to achieve such a ranking (since official rankings were first kept in the 1980s), and is the only Malaysian shuttler to hold the ranking for more than two weeks.

Despite his status among the world's elite, Lee has as failed to capture several of badminton's biggest titles, including the Olympic Games, the World Championships and the Asian Games. This deficiency is often contrasted by the Chinese media to the achievements of Lee's rival Lin Dan, who has won all of badminton's major titles at least once. Lee, due to the intense rivalry with Lin Dan, has been labelled by the Chinese press as the "weakest world number one"

Football (MU)

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.

In 1968, under the management of Matt Busby, Manchester United was the first English football club to win the European Cup, ten years after the Munich air disaster that claimed the lives of eight players. The current manager, Alex Ferguson, is the most successful manager in the club's history, having won 26 major honours since he took over in November 1986.

Having won 18 league titles, four League Cups and a record 11 FA Cups,Manchester United is one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football. The club has also won three European Cups and is unique in having won a Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League Treble, in the 1998–99 season.

Manchester United is one of the wealthiest and most widely supported football teams in the world. The club is said to be worth £1.13 billion, making it the most valuable football club in the world. After being floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, the club was purchased by Malcolm Glazer in May 2005 in a deal valuing the club at almost £800 million.

Japanese Band

X Japan is a Japanese heavy metal band founded in 1982 by Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama

X Japan is a Japanese heavy metal band founded in 1982 by Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama and Yoshiki Hayashi. Originally named X, the group achieved their breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second album Blue Blood. They started out as a power/speed metalband and later gravitated towards a progressive sound, at all times retaining an emphasis on ballads. Their sound is extremely raw, sometimes countered by the incorporation of classical style piano passages and vocal melodies. They have well-developed percussion parts and often use harmonized guitar riffs and solos.

Besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label, the group is widely credited as one of the pioneers of thevisual kei movement. They were known in their early years for their excessively large hairstyles resembling fountains, but toned these down in later years. As of 2010, the band has sold over thirty million records and over two million home videos.

After sixteen years, four albums, and selling out the 50,000 seat Tokyo Dome 18 times, X Japan disbanded in 1997. The band did not perform or record any material for another 10 years. However, in 2007, the band reunited and performed live for the first time since their break-up. After performing concerts throughout Asia from 2007 to 2009, the band performed their first North American tour from September 25 to October 10, 2010. They also plan to release their first studio album in more than 14 years in 2011.