Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 December 9

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From today's featured article

Infinity Blade is a fighting game developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games and released through the App Store on December 9, 2010. It is the first iOS video game to run on the Unreal Engine. In the game, the unnamed player character fights a series of one-on-one battles in a derelict castle to face the immortal God King. When in battle, players swipe the screen to attack and parry, and tap the screen to dodge and block enemy attacks. Upon victory or defeat, the player restarts the game as the character's descendant with the same items and experience level. Developed by a team of twelve people, the game was intended to demonstrate the new iOS version of the Unreal Engine. Four free expansions added new equipment, endings, and game modes. The game made US$1.6 million in the first four days after its release, more than any other app in the history of iOS, and over $23 million by the end of 2011. Reviews heavily praised the graphics and compared the mobile game favorably to console games. Critics also praised the swipe-based combat system, but split opinions on the cyclical gameplay as either addictive or repetitive. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Jean Sibelius

... that Jean Sibelius (pictured) described his string quartet Voces intimae as the "kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death"?
... that the critically endangered Arabian leopard is among the wildlife found in Yemen?
... that America's Got Talent 2014 quarterfinalist One Voice Children's Choir had a waiting list of 250 children wanting to join as of January 2015?
... that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that "my India resides in people like Imran Khan"?
... that the Khongoryn Els in the Mongolian desert is popularly known as the "Singing Sands"?
... that following his death, Norwegian footballer Bjørn Borgen was described by former team-mate Per Kristoffersen as the greatest right winger the country had ever produced?
... that the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg produced over two hundred varieties of crop and ornamental plants resistant to pests and blights?
... that the ancient fortifications of Xi'an were used as air raid shelters in World War II?

In the news

Launch of Akatsuki in 2010

The JAXA probe Akatsuki (launch pictured) enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.
In a constitutional referendum, Armenia approves becoming a parliamentary republic.
In Venezuela, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable wins an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections.
At least 29 workers die as a result of fire at the Azerbaijani Gunashli oilfield in the Caspian Sea.

Ongoing events:
- Syrian Civil War
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Xu Ming
- Scott Weiland

On this day...

December 9

Cruiser Mk I tank

1775 – American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia.
1931 – The approval of the Spanish Constitution by the Constituent Cortes paved the way to the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic.
1940 – Second World War: British and Commonwealth forces opened Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign (Cruiser Mk I tank pictured).
1965 – A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first television adaptation of Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts, was broadcast for the first time.
1979 – A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature.

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

US Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney posing with President Barack Obama. They are wearing the "McKayla is not impressed" expression of disappointment which became an internet phenomenon after Maroney made it upon winning a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Yahoo! listed the photograph of Maroney on the podium as the most viral picture of 2012.

Photograph: Pete Souza; edit: El Grafo

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