The Beaune Altarpiece is a large polyptych altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. It was commissioned in 1443 for the Hospices de Beaune by Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of the Duchy of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins, who was buried in front of the altarpiece. The polyptych consists of fifteen paintings spread across nine panels, of which six are painted on both sides. The inner panels contain scenes from the Last Judgement, with a central image that shows Christ seated in judgement, and the Archangel Michael holding scales as he weighs souls. The panel on Christ's far right depicts the gates of Heaven, that to his far left the entrance to Hell; souls are shown moving towards each after being judged. The altarpiece is in poor condition, having suffered from extensive paint loss, darkening of its colours and accumulations of dirt. ( Full article...)

A Still Life with Two Objects

• ... that Vytautas Tomaševičius is the first Lithuanian to win an Excellence Award at the Tokyo Art Olympia Biennale, for his painting A Still Life with Two Objects (shown)?
• ... that the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre has the world's longest spanning timber catenary arched roof?
• ... that Shetlander Johnnie Notions, a physician with no formal medical background, developed a smallpox inoculation that successfully immunised thousands of people before Jenner's vaccine was available?
• ... that the Christmas darter is considered a priority species by the state of South Carolina, but of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature?
• ... that Stan Lee supported the viral fan campaign to allow Donald Glover to audition for the role of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man‬?
• ... that the Enlightenment concept of doux commerce suggests that commerce civilizes people and can even eliminate violence?
• ... that the novel Tzilla is based on author Judith Katzir's great-grandmother, who invited her lover to live with her and her husband in Palestine?
• ... that Crossroads Village in Genesee County, Michigan, has a narrow huckleberry?

Jamal Khashoggi

• Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
• A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
• In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

December 28: Proclamation Day in South Australia ( 1836)

A pair of huia

• 893 – An earthquake destroyed the city of Dvin, Armenia, resulting in about 30,000 casualties.
• 1879 – The Tay Bridge, spanning the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and Wormit, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it, killing all on board.
• 1907 – The last confirmed sighting of the now-extinct huia (illustration shown) occurred in the Tararua Range on New Zealand's North Island.
• 1989 – In one of Australia's worst natural disasters, an earthquake measuring 5.6 M_L struck Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people and injuring more than 160 others, and causing an estimated A$4 billion in damages.
• 2009 – A suicide bomber attacked a Shia procession commemorating the day of Ashura in Karachi, Pakistan, causing 43 deaths.

Wang Zongbi (d. 925) · Arthur Hunter Palmer (b. 1819) · Barbara Judge (b. 1946)