Today is Tuesday; 7th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1440 lunar hijri; and February 26, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2766 solar years ago, on this day at noon in 747 BC, the “Anno Nobonassari” began in the reign of King Nabu-Nasir of Babylon, which the ancient Greco-Egyptian astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy, calls in his work “Almagest”, as beginning of the world’s first recorded calendar based on astronomical calculations. The Babylonian Chronicle covering the years 747 to 668 BC, the best preserved exemplar of this genre, was possibly collated from Babylonian astronomical diaries. The lists of celestial phenomena started with the lunar eclipse of 747–746 BC, a spectacular conjunction of the moon and the planets that may have inspired the commencement of recording of accurate astronomical observations. Although it is claimed that it was from the reign of Nabu-Nasir onward that the movements and duration of the stars were recorded, according to Islamic texts, it was Prophet Idris (Enoch), who centuries before the Great Deluge of the days of Prophet Noah, taught astronomy and devised the calendar. This is more or less confirmed by the 3rd century BC Hellenized Babylonian priest, Berossus, who in his work Babyloniaca, writes: “Nabu-Nasir gathered the records of his predecessors and destroyed them, thus ensuring that the history of the Chaldean kings began with him.”  In view of these facts, it could be said that Nabu-Nasir’s reign marks the reform of the Babylonian calendar, introducing regular calculated intercalary months, the eighteen-year cycle texts and perhaps even the zodiac. Over two centuries later with the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great of Persia, the astronomically advanced calendar of the Mesopotamian civilizations was adopted and fully Persianized by the Iranians.

1448 lunar years ago, on this day, some nine years before Hijra, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was blessed with the radiant daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), whom God Almighty refers in the holy Qur’an as “Kowsar” or the Perennial Fountain of Abundant Munificence. The birth of this noblest-ever lady, after her brothers had died in infancy, ensured continuation of the blessed progeny of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to all mankind. She was the perfect daughter, the perfect wife for the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali and the perfect mother for sons Imam Hasan and Imam Husain, and daughters Hazrat Zainab and Hazrat Omm Kolsoum (peace upon them). Several ayahs in the holy Qur’an refer to the unsurpassed merits of this Most Virtuous Lady, including the Verse of Purity, and the Verse of Mobahela, on whose revelation, she accompanied her father, husband and two small sons to the historical debate with the Christians of Najran that made the truth of Islam triumph. Her birthday is marked as Mother’s Day in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the years Muslims in several other countries have begun to hold such gatherings in order to more clearly tread the path of Fatema (SA), the daughter at whose threshold the Prophet used to salute and stand to his feet whenever she entered his presence, so as to give a practical demonstration of the rights and dignity of women in Islam.

865 solar years ago, on this day in 1154 AD, King Roger II of Sicily died at the age of 59 in his capital Palermo. Sicily, which for over three centuries was a Muslim island and part of the empire of the Fatemid Shi’ite Muslim Dynasty, was seized by his father, Roger I – a Norman adventurer from Normandy in northern France. Influenced by the rich culture and civilization of Islam, Roger II drew around him distinguished Muslim scientists, architects, statesmen, and even soldiers. The famous Islamic geographer Seyyed Mohammad al-Hassani al-Idrisi and the Spanish Muslim polymath Abu Salt al-Andalusi – who had formerly served the Fatemids in Egypt – were among the dignitaries at the Norman court in Palermo. Idrisi – a descendent of Imam Hasan (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – wrote for Roger the book “Nuzhat al-Mushtaaq fi-Ikhteraaq al-Afaaq”. Known in Latin as “Tabula Rogeriana”, it is a description of the world and the first world map ever drawn in Europe that later enabled navigators like Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan and others to rediscover the Americas. It took Idrisi fifteen years to write this monumental work which contains commentaries and illustrations as well as the first perfect map of the Eurasian continent including its link to North Africa. Roger II also hired many Muslims who were trained in long-established traditions of centralized government. These included Abdur-Rahman an-Nasrani, a Greek convert whose name was Latinized as Christodulus and who served as the Emir of Palermo with the title “ammiratus-ammiratorum” (a corruption of “Amir al-Omara”), and later “Amir al-Bahr” (navy commander), which gave rise to the English word Admiral.

217 solar years ago, on this day in 1802 AD, the acclaimed French poet and author, Victor Hugo, was born. He was a freedom-seeker and a supporter of social reforms in favor of the disadvantaged strata. He joined the French Academy at the age of 25, and was concurrently elected as a lawmaker. During the reign of Napoleon III, he stepped aside from the political scene due to his opposition to the repressive monarchic rule, and spent 20 years in exile. During this period, Hugo penned valuable works and can be considered as the pioneer of the Romanticism style. His important works include “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Miserables”. He died in 1885.

204 solar years ago, on this day in 1815 AD, Napoleon Bonaparte, along with 1,200 of his men, escaped from his 10-month confinement on the Island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, to start the 100-day re-conquest of France, before his final defeat in the Battle of Waterloo on June 15 and the exile to St. Helena Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he died in May 1821 – presumably by poison administered by the British.

159 solar years ago, on this day in 1860 AD, white-skinned European encroachers massacred a band of Wiyot Amerindians at the village of Tuluwat on Indian Island near Eureka, California. At least 60 women, children and elders were killed in cold blood. The US has a bleak and bloody record of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the native people.

120 lunar years ago, on this day in 1320 AH, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) was born in the city of Khomein, on the auspicious birth anniversary of his blessed ancestress, Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA). From childhood he was immersed in the study of Islamic sciences, and at the same time was aware and conscious of the political developments around in those days of Iran’s subservience to the British and the Russians. When he entered manhood, and was already a scholar of repute in hadith, philosophy and other subjects, he saw the British replace the Qajarid dynasty with an illiterate soldier named Reza Khan, who assumed the surname Pahlavi and unleashed oppression on the people and the ulema through his anti-Islamic policies. Reza Khan forcibly unveiled Iranian women, and banned men from wearing the traditional Iranian dress by imposing upon them European style of clothing. In 1941, Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini saw the British replace Reza Khan with his son, Mohammad Reza on the Peacock Throne, and this new self-styled king was even more submissive to his masters. In the early 1950s, the oil nationalization movement took shape and the Shah fled but was restored to power in the August 1953 CIA coup by the Americans, his new masters. In 1963, the Imam openly spoke against the anti-Islamic policies of the corrupt Pahlavi regime, for which he was imprisoned and then exiled – initially to Turkey and thereafter to Iraq, where he spent 14 years in holy Najaf, beside the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), grooming a large number of scholars. His guidelines generated the Islamic Revolution, and in February 1979, after a brief three-month stay in Paris, he returned to Iran to found the Islamic Republic. He thus delivered the country, not just from domestic despotism but foreign hegemony. It was his astute guidance that saved Islamic Iran from the intricate plots of the Great Satan (the US) including the 8-year war imposed by the American stooge Saddam. Imam Khomeini, who led the worldwide Islamic revival, was a prominent Mujtahid and a Gnostic of the highest order, who wrote several books. His concept of “Wilayat-e Faqih” or Governance of the Supreme Jurist in the absence of the Infallible Imam is indeed unique and the keys to the steadfastness and success of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the face of heavy odds. His speeches and messages are gathered in the 21-volume “Sahifa-e Noor” or Scripture of Light. He also has a diwan of Persian poetry.

116 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, Richard Jordan Gatling, US inventor of the “Gatling Gun”, the forerunner of the machine gun, died at age of 84. In 1861 he invented his gun, a crank-operated, rapid-fire multi-barrel design combining reliability, high firing rate and ease of loading into a single device. The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 spurred him to design firearms.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, the Soviet Union entered into an agreement with Iran four years after triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution by declaring all treaties imposed on Iran by Czarist Russia as null and void. The Soviet Union was under threats from all directions and the main purpose of the treaty was to ensure prevention of any anti-communist activities from Iranian soil. However, despite canceling all Czarist imposed treaties, the Soviet Union did not return to Iran the lands which the Czars had seized in the Caucasus, including what is known today as the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan, Daghestan, and parts of Central Asia such as the region of Marv in what is now the Republic of Turkmenistan.

84 solar years ago, on this day in 1935 AD, the feasibility of ‘RADAR’, which is the abbreviation of “Radio Detection And Ranging” was demonstrated for the first time at Daventry, England, by Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt. While working on methods of using radio-wave detection to locate thunderstorms in order to provide warnings to airmen, he realized that it could be used to track enemy aircraft for air defence. The test showed that a British bomber flying in the main beam of a BBC short-wave radio transmitter gave back reflected signals to the ground on three occasions that the aircraft passed overhead. By 1939, the outbreak of WW II, the military installed a chain of radar stations along the east and south coasts of England to prevent a German invasion.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the great Iranian lexicographer, Ali Akbar Dehkhoda died at the age of 76. Born in Tehran, after completing his studies he went to Europe for higher studies, and on returning to Iran five years later, he actively involved himself in the Constitutional Movement against the decadent Qajarid dynasty. He launched his literary career by writing critical and satirical articles in the Persian newspapers and magazines against the unjust conditions of the time. He was an authority on Iran's culture and Persian language, and wrote the 4-volume work "Imsaal wa Hakam" which contains over 4,000 proverbs and their meanings. His magnum opus is "Lughat-Namah", a voluminous lexicon of the Persian language.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Armenian militiamen and the 366th rifle regiment of the Russian army massacred in cold blood at least 613 Muslim men, women, and children in the town of Khojaly in the Qarabagh autonomous region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on its seizure by Armenia. As confirmed by Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the "Khojaly Genocide" and its aftermath shocked the civilized world, and later many dead bodies of Azeris trying to flee the massacre were found in the surrounding mountains and forests as a result of freezing temperatures. In addition, the Armenians imprisoned the survivors of the tragedy. The Caucasus region, including the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, were an integral part of Iran’s successive empires for over two millenniums until the occupation by Russia in the 19th century.

26 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the prominent jurisprudent, Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli, passed away in Iran. He was from the city of Amol in Mazandaran Province, and after completing his religious studies in holy Qom he left for Iraq for higher religious studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf. He reached the degree of Ijtehad and his classes were attended by a large number of scholars and students. He was known for his piety and among his works is the book "Kashf al-Haqa'eq". Ayatollah Mirza Hashem Amoli was the father of Iran's present judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, and Iran's current Speaker of the Legislature, Dr. Ali Larijani.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2014 AD, 23-year Ja’far Mohammad Ja’far of Bahrain attained martyrdom in a hospital a week after he was admitted there following torture at the hands of agents of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, who had kidnapped him on trumped up charges, including smuggling of weapons, when the fact of the matter is that the mass popular uprising of the people of Bahrain for restoration of their birthrights, has been peaceful and unarmed from its very outset in early 2011 despite the brutalities of the US-Israeli backed regime.

AS/SS