Kingdom Hearts II is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to the 2002 Disney Interactive and Square collaboration, Kingdom Hearts, and to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In this game, the protagonist Sora returns to search for his lost friends, while Organization XIII from Chain of Memories reappears to impede his progress. All three games feature a large cast of characters from Disney films and Final Fantasy games. The game was well-received, earning year-end awards from numerous video gaming websites. In Japan, it shipped more than one million copies within a week of its release. One month after its North American release, it had sold over one million copies. By March 31, 2007, the game had shipped over 4 million copies worldwide. A novel and manga series are based on it, as well as an international version called Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, re-released in high definition as Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix for the PlayStation 3. The game was actor Pat Morita's final voice role before his death in 2005. ( Full article...)

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• ... that the varied wildlife of the United Arab Emirates includes salt-tolerant plants, gerbils and toads (pictured)?
• ... that as Director of the General Political Department of the Fourth Front Army, Zhang Qinqiu held the highest war-time position of a woman in the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army?
• ... that Mozu kofungun was originally a group of more than 100 Japanese kofun burial mounds of which now less than 50% remain of the key-hole, rectangular, round and unknown shapes?
• ... that Spanish footballer Alejandro Zamora's only La Liga match was also the last match of Héctor Cúper as the Real Betis manager?
• ... that the mihrab in the Kabuli Bagh Mosque has an epigraph which includes the "Throne Verse from the Quran"?
• ... that the marble peak Sinanitsa in Pirin is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most beautiful summits?
• ... that Sarla Bedi established the Hindu reform movement Arya Samaj in Toronto, Canada, and promoted social causes?
• ... that the Left Jab cleared the way for Diamond Arrow?

• After launching a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX successfully lands the vehicle's first stage (pictured) in Cape Canaveral.
• Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the suspended presidents of FIFA and UEFA respectively, are banned from association football for eight years amid a corruption case.
• More than 70 people are missing after a landslide in Shenzhen, China.
• In the Spanish general election, the ruling People's Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, loses one third of its seats, but remains the largest single party.
• Deep coal mining ceases in the United Kingdom with the closure of Kellingley Colliery.

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December 28: Day of the Holy Innocents (Western Christianity)

• 1065 – Westminster Abbey in London, built by Edward the Confessor between 1045 and 1050, was consecrated.
• 1612 – Galileo became the first person to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
• 1832 – John C. Calhoun became the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
• 1908 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Messina, Italy, killing more than 100,000 people.
• 1935 – Politician Pavel Postyshev revived the New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union when Pravda published his letter asking for them to be installed in schools, children's homes, Young Pioneer Palaces, children's clubs, children's theaters, and cinema theaters.

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HMV's Poll of Polls was an annual list of albums compiled by British music retailer HMV from 1998 to 2012. The listing was created each December by collating year-end polls from approximately 30 music magazines, newspapers and guides to determine the most critically acclaimed albums of the year. An album's placing in the list was determined by the number of different polls in which it was included. In the event of two records featuring in the same number of polls, the album with the highest combined placings was given the higher position on the Poll of Polls. Hello Nasty by American hip hop group Beastie Boys topped the first chart. Subsequent polls were topped by acts such as Daft Punk, Queens of the Stone Age and Kanye West. The only act to top the listing more than once was Canadian band Arcade Fire (pictured), who were number one in both 2005 and 2010 with Funeral and The Suburbs respectively. Commentators observed a disparity between the albums that placed highly in the Poll of Polls and those that were the year's biggest-selling. Albums released through independent record labels often performed well in the poll. ( Full list...)

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The first jet-assisted take-off performed in the United States. In this August 1941 test, an ERCO Ercoupe piloted by Captain Homer A. Boushey Jr. was fitted with a GALCIT booster and took off from March Field, California. JATO assisted take-off systems are used to help overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets. Photograph: NASA/ JPL; restoration: Chris Woodrich Recently featured: Wandering albatross Bixby Creek Bridge Dominostein Archive More featured pictures...