>> eric scott has the distinction of being the world's leading pilot. who would buy that thing? >> that would be cool. >> trying to get away from -- get away from buildings. get out. >> look at him. >> on the broadcast tonight, the visionary. tonight we remember steve jobs -- a genius of the modern age who changed our world and tonight how the world is remembering him. also, one on one. what it was like to sit across from steve jobs surrounded by all of his creations in one of his last network interviews. the great divide. as the protests spread in american cities, the amecan president weighs in on what the shouting is all about. and don't test. a leave lugs brewing tonight in medicine. it's about the prostate test we have been told about in so many public service announcements. now this could change everything. now this could change everything. "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. since the news arrived fro california last night and all day today, we have heard people say steve jobs changed the world. and it's true. we have heard him compared to henry ford, thomas edison, alexander graham bell and it's true. his death was a global event. in his own way, he changed life. and along the way, computing and music. he gave us something to point to with pride. he gave us the icons, fonts, shuffles and swipes of our modern lives. he was relentless, exacting and unique and he was dying of cancer during some of the most productive years of his life. steve jobs was apple and steve jobs was the american innovator of the modern age. he's gone at the age of 56 and we remember him tonight beginning with nbc's george

lewis. >> reporter: with the help of a top design team, jobs turned electronic gadgets into objects of desire. there was the macintosh computer in 1984. >> and it has turned out insanely great. >> reporter: the ipod in 2001. and then in 2007 -- >> today, apple is going to reinvent the phone. >> reporter: -- the iphone. and in 2010, the ipad. >> so all these things, one after another after another it's like homerun, homerun, homerun. and there's only one babe. >> reporter: in 1976 steve woszniak and jobs cofounded apple and within ten years it had turned into a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees. >> they were the most fun years of my life. >> reporter: it wasn't all fun. after losing a corporate power struggle in 1985, jobs left apple for 11 years.

he went into computer animation, acquiring pixar studios and striking pay dirt with a string of hit movies starting with "toy story". >> to infinity and beyond! >> reporter: when jobs came back to apple in 1996, he began reinventing the mac, dressing it up in a variety of colors. >> they look so good, you kind of want to lick 'em. >> reporter: concerns about his health began in 2004 when he underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. he spoke about that during a commencement speech at stanford university. >> this is the closest i have been to facing death. i hope it's the closest i get. >> reporter: but jobs was losing weight, something revealed in these photos taken in 2007 and 2008. in april 2009 he underwent a liver transplant. five months later, back on the job at apple, he expressed his gratitude. >> i now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car

crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. >> reporter: friends say one of the things that drove steve jobs was a premonition he had that he would die young. as he told the stanford grads in 2005 -- >> your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. >> reporter: time magazine stopped the presses when jobs died and redid tomorrow's edition, putting him on the cover for the seventh time. >> steve jobs is edison in the sense that he was a terrific innovator. he was henry ford the businessman. he might go down as the top ceo of any company of any kind in the history of business. >> reporter: apple employees have been stopping by this improvised memorial at company headquarters. and people have been paying their respects at one of jobs's residences in nearby palo alto. and all over the internet, there are images like this popping up

on social network sites. jobs is survived by his wife and four children. a communique from the family said steve was surrounded by the people he loved and that he died peacefully. brian? >> george lewis starting us off in cupertino, california, tonight. george, thanks. as you look back and as we think back over all those new apple product roll-outs over the years, it is astounding how much innovation this one man is responsible for. >> today, for the first time ever i'd like to let macintosh speak for itself. >> hello, i am macintosh. it is with pride that i introduce a man who's been like a father to me, steve jobs. [ cheers and applause ] >> there it is. right there. [ applause ] >> amazing little device holds 1,000 songs.

[ applause ] >> do you ever wonder what this pocket's for? [ laughter ] >> i have always wondered that. well, now we know. because this is the new ipod nano. [ applause ] >> this is really hot. an all new design. [ applause ] >> now, stop me if you have already seen this. believe me. you ain't seen it. >> they were all amazing, one after the other. it can be said what steve jobs sold, the world bought. and he built a $350 billion company from scratch which is why he's being remembered around the world tonight. nbc's anne thompson with us tonight from one of the four apple stores in manhattan. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. but, you know, it's more than that because steve jobs didn't just change the way we communicate.

with his keen eye for design and a sleek pair of white earbuds, he made his customers cool and today they showed their appreciation. the grief mirrored steve jobs's worldwide reach expressed from times square to tokyo in its own unique way. >> someone who did so much. makes me want to do more. >> to me it's comparable to the day that princess diana died. i guess steve jobs was one of my heroes. >> he opened our minds. we saw the world differently. >> reporter: his products brought the news to fans in atlanta. >> i heard about steve jobs's death on my mac book pro. >> i was on twitter on my ipad. >> i heard about it on my ibook g-4. >> reporter: on this morning's "today" show, matt lauer demonstrated the power of the products. >> an ipad, ipod, iphone. look at it. that's impact. >> reporter: they are everywhere. an iphone in the war zone of afghanistan.

an ipod in the international space station and today, the ipad used by this american scientist in antarctica and the second grade class at st. margaret school in riverdale, new york. >> the ipads are awesome. >> reporter: new technology that helps the tried and true method. >> fighting bad guys while learning math. >> that makes math cool? >> yeah. >> reporter: jobs's ideas changed our lives as cancer changed his. >> he was a man to be admired. >> reporter: on twitter, messages came at an estimated 10,000 a second with hash tags such as isad. one fan writing, without you, apple is just a fruit. on the "nightly" facebook page when asked to choose a favorite apple product linda wrote, that's like trying to decide which of your children is your favorite child. tonight from the virtual world to the real one, a special thank you from all who benefitted from jobs's tree of knowledge. in death as in life, jobs continues to sell.

his authorized biography was number 424 this morning on amazon. tonight, it's number 1. and it's also number 1 on itunes books. brian? >> anne thompson here in manhattan. thanks. now listen to steve jobs during a rare interview, one of his last network television interviews. and for the record he did not enjoy being interviewed. i sat down with him on the eve of the opening of the flagship apple store in manhattan just a few blocks from here on 5th avenue. now, remember, back in 2006 when we met him at the store it was the coolest store anyone had ever seen containing the coolest products you could imagine. and when you think about it, back in '06, steve jobs was still just getting started. listen in this interview to how he sees himself or chooses not to. you don't like introspection, i

know that about you, but i'm going to ask you to be introspective for a moment. where do you fit in the american family of thinkers and inventors when you see a mouse in public, when you see a click, drag, garbage can logo, all the things you had a hand in that are part of our daily lives, how do you view yourself and your achievements? >> you know, i don't really think that way. >> try it. >> well, i'm a private person and when i think of the most valuable things in my life, i think of my family. and when we talk about our work, you know, the people i work with and myself, when we finish doing something that we're really proud of, we want to get onto the next thing. so, you know, i think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go

do something else wonderful and not dwell on it for too long. just figure out what's next. >> so while you should be applauded for saying that about your family in a society that doesn't always venerate those things, the fact that you have left us with the tools of our life now is not really the most important part of your life. ople to figure out. for other i'm very lucky. i get to work with a group of extremely talented people. and, you know, we're racing ahead. we've got some really great ideas of the products we're going to build next year and the year after that we're working real hard on. so i think that's -- our focal length is, you know, always forward. >> and think of the projects that were yet to come out. there is more of that conversation from that night in the apple store in new york available on our website, nightly.msnbc.com as part of our coverage of steve jobs. now to other news, chiefly the u.s. economy. president obama held a news

conference this morning at the white house. a lot of the questioning focused on unemployment and the very public show of anger building around the country. our chief white house correspondent chuck todd was there. >> where are the jobs! >> reporter: with growing disillusionment, president obama tried to show empathy. >> i think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works. >> reporter: but he also defended the decisions he made to save the financial industry. >> i used up a lot of political capital and i've got the dings and bruises to prove it in order to make sure that we prevented a financial meltdown and that banks stayed afloat. >> reporter: he responded to a question about why no one on wall street has gone to jail. >> a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal. it was just immoral or

inappropriate or reckless. >> reporter: the goal for this press conference was to sell his $450 billion jobs plan but the president spent much of his time explaining why he can't get it passed. >> so there may be some skepticism that i personally can persuade republicans to take actions in the interest of the american people. but that's exactly why i need the american people to try to put some pressure on them. >> reporter: and he blamed congress for the country's skepticism about washington. >> until they see congress actually putting country ahead of party politics and partisanship, they are going to be skeptical. doesn't matter how many times i preached to him. >> reporter: minutes before the president entered the east room house speaker john boehner asked his own question. >> well, mr. president, why have you given up on the country and decided to campaign full time instead of doing what the american people sent us all here to do? >> reporter: while he didn't address the question directly,

the president denied he was trying to pull a harry truman. >> if congress does something i can't run against a do-nothing congress. if congress does nothing then it's not a matter of me running against them. i think the american people will run them out of town. >> reporter: the white house is pulling out all the stops to try to fix their economic brand these days. even using the clinton card tomorrow. secretary of state hillary clinton guest hosts the president's jobs council meeting, brian. >> chuck todd, thanks for that. up next, as we continue, the advice that may stun millions of americans who have been told they need that routine test for prostate cancer. and now the question, what are men to do now? [ male announcer ] what's the beat that moves your heart?

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we're back with a potential game-changer in health news and here is the headline from the new york times website. got our attention tonight. dr. nancy snyderman, our chief medical editor joins us in studio. u.s. panel advises against routine prostate test. what is this story about?

>> this is a little bit of a controversy that's been spinning around in the medical arenas for quite some time. the risk benefit ratio of the routine blood test men are accustomed to. now it is expected that's going to play out with the u.s. preventative task force. on tuesday it is expected that this force -- this is the same group that suggested changing the mammogram guidelines a couple of years ago. it is expected that they will issue new recommendations that the psa test men routinely take to check for prostate cancer may not be a good screening test at all and should not be routinely done and here's why. the concern is that the test could be elevated even with benign problems like inflammation or enlarged prostate and once you have the elevated test it leads you to a biopsy, unnecessary treatment. as we talk about economics it comes back to not hurting the patient, not spending undue money. >> of course cancer is part of our lead story tonight. >> it sure is.

>> cancer got steve jobs. all the king's horses and all the king's men. >> it's a humbling thing. one of the things we have to talk about in life that there is death. and no doubt that once steve jobs got his diagnosis he knew the inevitability of this yet he had a very rare form of the disease that occurs in only 5% of the 43,000 cases of ery year.c cancer that occur he was treated with surgery, followed up with a liver transplant and he survived a little more than seven years which is way against the odds of other people. a lot of people would say it was great medical treatment and he had a passion for work. it was a shock even though it was expected. >> dr. nancy snyderman, thank you as always. >> you bet, brian. when we come back after a break, the woman whose words changed the american work place two decades ago. we'll show you what she had to say today. place two decades ago. we'll show you what she had to say today. i know you're worried about making your savings last

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congresswoman gabrielle giffords today. a smiling, happy congresswoman at a navy retirement ceremony in d.c. for her husband, former nasa astronaut mark kelly. this was hosted by vice president joe biden who at the ceremony called her an inspiration for all those with brain injuries. and anita hill was back in washington today, coming up on 20 years since those explosive hearings to confirm clarence thomas to the supreme court. the hearing sparked a huge public debate in this country and changed the rules of the american workplace forever. looking back on it today, she said her role in the hearings was worthwhile. >> i could not be happier than i am right now because i know that that testimony, no matter whatever anyone says, and no matter who sits on the bench

today, i know that that testimony was not in vain. >> professor anita hill today at orgetown in washington. and some more news on the economy tonight. mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest levels since modern records started in 1971. average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 3.94% this week. in the wake of the fed's new operation to buy longer term bonds pushing down the interest rate tied to mortgages. we also learned today that in the past ten years, home ownership rate in this country fell by the biggest margin since the great depression, a result of the collapse in the housing bubble. up next here tonight, the advice on life left behind for all of us from a real visionary. all of us from a real visionary. [ [ humana believes nothing is more important than relationships. [ grandma ] relationships are life... if you don't have that thing that fills your heart and your soul... all the way over there. [ grandma ] ...you're missing that part of your life that just fulfills you. ♪ ♪ the trees go by

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the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ finallyer finally here tonight we go back to 2005. steve jobs, a college dropout gave the commencement address at stanford. it was a year after he'd been diagnosed with the cancer that ultimately took his life and he talked about life in the speech that one writer later called the gettysburg address of commencement speeches. so we'll go out on steve jobs in his own words tonight. >> i was lucky. i found what i love to do early in life.

and in ten years apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. and then i got fired. what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone. and it was devastating. i didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. it freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. i'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going is that i loved what i did. you've got to find what you love. as with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. and like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. so keep looking. don't settle. [ applause ] >> about a year ago, i was diagnosed with cancer. my doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order

which is doctor's code for prepare to die. it means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them in just a few months. it means to make sure everything is buttoned up so it will be as easy as possible for your family. it means to say your good-byes. having lived through it, i can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. no one wants to die. even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. [ laughter ] >> and yet death is the destination we all share. remembering that you are going to die is the best way i know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. you are already naked. there is no reason not to follow your heart. your time is limited. so don't waste it living someone else's life. >> he lived six more years, among the most productive in human history. that's our broadcast for this thursday night.

thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com