TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in 2009, disgraced U.S. financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced in New York to the maximum 150 years behind bars at age 71 for fleecing hundreds of investors out of tens of billions of dollars in a massive Ponzi scheme.

In 1937, Quebec businessman Joseph-Armand Bombardier patented the snowmobile. The first seven-person machine cost $7,500.

In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone after it was officially announced on Jan. 9, 2007, after years of rumours and speculation. The iPhone revolutionised the smartphone industry and for a while made Apple one of the world's most valuable companies.