Today is Thursday; 16th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1440 lunar hijri; and June 6, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1156 solar years ago, on this day in 863 AD, Abu Musa Utamish, the powerful Turkic military officer and later vizier of the usurper Abbasid Caliphate, was assassinated after a year in office by fellow Turks, and his residence was plundered. Born in Iraq, he played an important role in the initial years of the period known as the Anarchy at Samarra, when the Turkic guards murdered and installed caliphs. He was among the officers who assassinated the tyrannical self-styled caliph Mutawakkil in December 861, and rapidly rose to become one of the most powerful officials in the government. Soon he was appointed vizier, given control over the treasury, and received the governorships of Egypt and the Maghreb, but fell victim to his overriding ambitions.

857 lunar years ago, on this day in 583 AH, Iraqi poet and literary figure, Mohammad ibn Obaidollah Ibn Abdullah at-Ta’awizi, passed away at the age of 64. He composed several long odes in praise of the Prophet and the Infallible Imams.

836 lunar years ago, on this day in 604 AH, the prominent Sunni Muslim Iraqi scholar, Mohammad bin al-Hassan bin Mohammad, Abu Bakr an-Naqqash al-Mawsili, passed away. After studying in Baghdad he traveled to various Islamic lands to acquire knowledge. He was considered an exegete of the holy Qur'an and an authority on hadith. In his book titled “Shifa as-Sudour”, he has mentioned events relating to the historic occasion of Ghadeer-Khom, where on the 18th of Zilhijja in the year 10 AH, on the express commandment of God, while returning from his Farewell Hajj pilgrimage, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) proclaimed Imam Ali (AS) as his vicegerent.

836 lunar years ago, on this day in 604 AH, the historian, judge, and literary figure, Jamal od-Din Wasel, was born in Hamah, Syria. He started his studies under his father, who was a teacher at the Naseriyyah School in Bayt al-Moqaddas. He had a varied career under both the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties of Egypt-Syria. He served as ambassador for Mamluk sultan, Rukn od-Din Baybars, and had various interactions with the Christian Crusader invaders. He ended his lengthy and distinguished career as Grand Qazi of his home city of Hamah. The major work of Ibn Wasel that addresses the crusades is translated as “The Dissipater of Anxieties Concerning the History of the Ayyubids”. He especially focused on the career and deeds of Salah od-Din during the Third Crusade.

835 lunar years ago, on this day in 605 AH, the famous Imami scholar, Shaikh Saleh Abu'l-Hassan Warram Ibn Abi Firas, passed away. He was the maternal grandfather of the celebrated scholar, Seyyed ibn Tawous. He authored the book “Tanbih al-Khawater” which is also known as "Majmou-at-al-Warram".

454 solar years ago, on this day in 1565 AD, Murtaza Nizam Shah I succeeded his father Husain Nizam Shah to the throne of Ahmadnagar in the northwestern Deccan (Southern India) as the 4th king of the dynasty founded by Malik Ahmed Bahri (son of a Kanarese Brahmin convert to Islam), who assumed the title of Nizam Shah on seceding from the Bahmani Empire of Iranian origin. The second king, Burhan Nizam Shah I, became a staunch follower of the school of Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, and established cordial relations with Safavid Iran. Many scholars and artists migrated from Iran, Iraq and Hijaz to Ahmadnagar, where the court language was Persian. During Murtaza's minority, his mother Khanzada Humayun Sultana, ruled as a regent for several years, and on coming to age, he annexed the neighbouring sultanate of Berar in 1574. He died in 1588 after a reign of 23 years. Among the famous books in Persian written in Ahmadnagar were "Tuhfa-e Nizam-Shahi" and "Tarikh-e Elchi-e Nizam Shah"– the latter being an account of Nizamshahi envoy to Iran.

375 solar years ago, on this day in 1644 AD, the Qing dynasty’s Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor captured Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Two years later in 1646, the Muslim rebellion erupted in China calling for the restoration of the Ming dynasty and supported by non-Muslim Chinese as well. These forces assembled in the northwest under a Muslim leader known in Chinese sources as Milayin who revolted against Qing rule in Ganzhou (Gansu). He was soon joined by another Muslim named Ding Guodong, and they took over a number of towns in Gansu, including the provincial capital Lanzhou, before being captured and killed by Meng Qiaofang in 1648. By 1650 the Muslim rebels had been crushed in campaigns that inflicted heavy casualties.

267 solar years ago, on this day in 1752 AD, a devastating fire destroyed one-third of Moscow, including 18,000 homes.

220 solar years ago, on this day in 1799 AD, Russian poet and author, Alexander Pushkin, was born in Moscow. He catapulted to fame with publication of his collection of poems in 1820. Later, he wrote his odes in admiration of freedom which led to his exile. In his poems, Pushkin has defended freedom. His plays, stories in verse, and odes, are all considered as the prominent works in the Russian literature. Among his famous works, mention can be made of the novels “Eugene Onegin”, and “Boris Godunov”. He died at the age of 38 years.

144 solar years ago, on this day in 1875 AD, Thomas Mann, German novelist and essayist, was born. He was forced into exile by the Nazis. The major part of his works is concerned with problems of the artist, which he has probed deeply and described so brilliantly. His works included “Buddenbrooks” (1901), “Death in Venice” (1912), “Doctor Faustus” (1947), and “The Magic Mountain”.

137 solar years ago, on this day in 1882 AD, more than 100,000 inhabitants of the Indian port city of Bombay were killed as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushed huge waves into the harbour.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1901 AD, Ahmad Sukarno, Indonesian engineer, politician, and the 1st President of the country was born. Along with fellow revolutionary Mohammad Hatta, he proclaimed the independence of Indonesia by launching the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch colonial rule. Four years later, thanks to the people's uprising, Indonesia emerged as an independent country. In 1956, total independence was achieved and Sukarno was elected the first president. In 1967, he was forced to resign and hand over power to military general, Suharto. Ahmed Sukarno, died at the age of 69 in 1970.

109 solar years ago, on this day in 1910 AD, the jurisprudent Ayatollah Rayhanollah Boroujerdi passed away at the age of 60. A product of the seminaries of Isfahan and holy Najaf, he settled in Tehran and was an authority on Islamic laws, biography of scholars, and both Arabic and Persian literature.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1920 AD, the uprising of the Iranian freedom-seekers, led by Mirza Kouchak Khan Jangali, against the suppressive rule of the Qajarid Dynasty and plunder of Iran by Britain, started. This uprising was organized by the committee of Islamic union, which was inspired by the ideas of thinkers such as Seyyed Jamal od-Din Assadabadi, Seyyed Abdur-Rahman Kavakebi, and Egypt’s Sheikh Mohammad Abduh. Its goal was the solidarity of Islamic countries to stand up against the suppressive rulers and the infiltration of the foreign powers. Mirza Kouchak Khan, who witnessed that the situation in Iran is chaotic and the country is under the domination of foreign powers, with an inclination toward the idea of Islamic unity, organized military establishment, and struggled against domestic oppression and foreign colonialism to rescue Iran. Despite the struggles of Mirza Kouchak Khan and his allies, a number of supporters of the Soviet Union's communist regime, who infiltrated the followers of Mirza Kouchak Khan, betrayed the Jangal Movement. Finally, the Jangal Movement, which was considered as one of the deep-rooted movements of that era, gradually deteriorated due to the differences of opinion of its leaders and the conspiracies of foreign colonial powers. Finally the last blow to this independence-seeking and anti-suppressive movement was dealt by Reza Khan Pahlavi.

51 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, Palestinian Christian activist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, in a revolutionary style execution with a pistol, shot dead US presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, in defence of his Zionist-usurped homeland, days after Kennedy had pledged that on becoming president he would send 50 advanced bombers to the illegal entity called Israel in order to further terrorize and kill Palestinians and other Arabs. While still a boy Sirhan and his parents – natives of Bayt al-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) – were like most other Palestinians, displaced from his ancestral home by the illegal Zionist migrants from Europe and after a life in refugee camps, forced to migrate to the US. Sirhan is serving a life sentence in the US, and his supporters defend his killing of Kennedy as a justified act in support of his occupied homeland, Palestine.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, forces of the illegal Zionist entity, led by notorious butcher Ariel Sharon, invaded Lebanon and seized control of all areas from the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut. During their occupation, the Israelis destroyed Lebanon’s economic installations and killed almost 20,000 countless people during their 70-day siege, culminating in the massacre of over 5,000 Palestinian women, children and the elderly in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. These brutalities made the Lebanese people organize themselves into the Islamic Resistance that forced the Zionist troops to retreat, and finally led to the liberation of almost all southern Lebanon in May 2000.

30 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) was laid to rest in Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery. The funeral was unprecedented in history and saw over ten million people take part. The funerary was a grand display of the loyalty of the people of Iran for the beloved Founder of the Islamic Republic.

AS/SS