An iconic performance was witnessed 11 years ago today as the prolific Kobe Bryant stunned the NBA, his 81-point game in a 122-104 win against Toronto Raptors representing the competition’s second-highest individual scoring total.

To put this achievement into context, only Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in 1962 can better it.

Since the 2005-06 season, only six games have seen a player score 60 points or more – and Bryant has half of them.

Current Golden State Thunder superstars Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant have not passed that mark, with the inimitable LeBron James doing it just once.

Such displays cemented Bryant’s unquestionable legend.

Other memorable events on this day: 

1857: The National Association of Baseball Players is founded.

1959: Reigning Formula One world champion Mike Hawthorne is killed in a road accident in Surrey.

1984: The revolutionary Apple Macintosh computer is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII commercial.

1988: West Indies great Brian Lara makes his first-class cricket debut in Trinidad & Tobago v Leeward Islands