Today is Friday; 18th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1440 lunar hijri; and August 9, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1641 solar years ago, on this day in 378 AD, the Battle of Adrianople in what is now Edirne in the European part of Turkey resulted in a resounding defeat for the Roman Empire and the killing of Emperor Valens, along with over half of his army, by a joint force of Visigoths and the Iranian semi nomadic Alans – ancestors of present day Ossetians of the Caucasus in Georgia and the southwestern part of the Federation of Russia. Valens, who reigned for 14 years was constantly embroiled in wars, especially with Shapur II of Iran’s Sassanid Empire in northeastern Syria, southeastern Anatolia, and Armenia. The Alans who were offshoots of the Iranian Scythians or Sakas which were once widespread throughout Central Asia before the influx of Turkic tribes from Eastern Asia, infiltrated Europe as far as Spain, from where they crossed over into Northern Africa, were Europeanized and Christianized in the course of history.  

1334 lunar years ago, on this day in 106 AH, the jurisprudent and Hadith narrator, Tawous ibn Kaysaan al-Yamani passed away in Mecca. Said to be of Persian stock from Hamedan, he resided in Yemen and is narrator of the "munajaat" (whispered supplications) to God Almighty of Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He is held in esteem by both Shi'a and Sunni scholars. Famous Iranian Sunni compilers such as Bukhari, Muslim Naishapuri, Tirmizi, etc. have recorded hadith on his authority.

1326 lunar years ago, on this day in 114 AH, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in Medina at the age of 57, through poisoning by Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime. His epithet "Baqer al-Uloum" means Splitter and Spreader of Sciences, and he spared no efforts to promote the pure and pristine teachings of Islam in an era when foreign ideas and thoughts were confusing the minds of Muslims. His period of imamate was 19 years, and he was descended on both sides from the Prophet. He was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat al- Baqie Cemetery of Medina.

1261 lunar years ago, on this day in 179 AH, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), after being detained in Medina by the tyrannical Abbasid caliph, Haroun Rashid, was brought to the Iraqi port city of Basra and imprisoned in the palace of the governor, Eisa bin Ja'far. For a year the Imam languished here before being taken to Baghdad and imprisoned in the house of Fazl bin Rabee'. In 183 AH, on the 25th of Rajab, Imam Kazem (AS) left the mortal world, a martyr, after his food was poisoned on the orders of Haroun, who knew that as long as the Prophet's rightful successor was alive, his claim to caliphate was under question by the people.

1206 solar years ago, on this day in 803 AD, Byzantine Empress, Irene of Athens died at the age of 51 on the island of Lesbos, a year after she was exiled on her overthrow by her finance minister, Nikephoros. During her absolute reign of five years, following a 17-year period as regent for her son, Constantine VI, who predeceased her, she entered into a disastrous military confrontation in 782 with a Muslim army in Asia Minor that backfired on her, and made her pay an annual tribute of 70,000 or 90,000 dinars to the caliphate in Baghdad, for a three-year truce, as well as to give them 10,000 silk garments, and to provide them with guides, provisions, and access to markets during their withdrawal.

1186 solar years ago, on this day in 833 AD, Abdullah al-Mamoun, the 7^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid dynasty, died at the age of 48 near Tarsus in what is now southwestern Turkey, during a campaign against the Byzantine Empire. Of his 24-year reign, four years were involved in civil war with his step brother, Amin, the rival caliph in Baghdad whom he ordered killed. Born to Haroun's Iranian concubine, Marajil, his capital was initially the Khorasani city of Marv (currently in Turkmenistan). Mamoun earned lasting notoriety for forcing Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), to come to Marv from distant Medina, as part of his plot to isolate the Ahl al-Bayt from the ummah. When his plot failed and the Imam's popularity grew among the people during his 2-year sojourn in Khorasan, Mamoun martyred the Prophet's rightful heir in Tous through a fatal dose of poison.

1077 lunar years ago, on this day in 363 AH, the scholar, orator, and historian, Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Thabet, popular as Khateeb al-Baghdadi, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 73. Born near Baghdad, he was the son of a preacher of Darzidjan and studied under his father and other scholars. His primary interest was hadith. At the age of 20 he went to Basra to collect hadith. He then travelled east to Iran and made two trips to Naishapur in Khorasan, collecting in his journey more hadith in Rayy and Isfahan. Back in Baghdad, he acquired fame as a preacher and orator, and it is said that teachers and preachers of hadith would usually submit to him what they had collected before they used them in their lectures or sermons. Initially a follower of the Hanbali School of jurisprudence, he switched over to the Shafe'i school – a change that made Hanbalis his bitter enemies and heap accusations against him. This sectarian hostility forced him to leave Iraq for Syria and settle in Damascus, where he preached for 8 years, and before returning to Baghdad, spent a year in Tyre, Lebanon. He was a prolific writer and has authored several books, the most famous of which is the voluminous history titled "Tarikh al-Baghdad".  He has quoted many of the hadith on the merits of Prophet Mohammad's (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).

846 solar years ago, on this day in 1173 AD, construction began of the campanile of a cathedral in the Italian city of Pisa – later to be known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It took two centuries to complete.

519 solar years ago, on this day in 1500 AD, during the 4-year Ottoman-Venetian War, the Turks captured Methoni and Messenia in southern Greece, as part of the gradual conquest of the Peloponnese Peninsula.

388 solar years ago, on this day in 1631 AD, John Dryden, English poet, playwright, critic, and translator was born. He died at the age 69.

205 solar years ago, on this day in 1814 AD, the Amerindian Creek Tribe was forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson by the expansionist US, thus giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia to the white European settlers. As part of the genocide of the native population, successive US regimes from time to time encroached upon the lands of the Amerindians, and almost exterminated them.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, three days after the US act of state terrorism in dropping an atomic bomb on the unsuspecting Japanese city of Hiroshima, faraway from any warfront, Washington repeated its crime against humanity by targeting another Japanese city with an atomic bomb, and this time the port of Nagasaki, where almost 50,000 people were instantly killed and tens of thousands of others severely injured. The sadistic Americans jokingly called this weapon of mass destruction “Fat Man”. At a time when World War 2 was almost over, the atomic bombardment was ordered by President Harry Truman, who was barely three months in office.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia and became the first and only country to gain independence unwillingly. In 1819, Britain was leased what is now Singapore by the Sultan of Johor, and after independence from British rule, joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

45 solar years ago, on this day in 1974 AD, US president Richard Nixon, was forced to resign due to tapping of phones of rival Democrats during the presidential campaign of 1972. Known as the Watergate scandal because of the situation of the Democratic Party’s headquarters in the locality of the same name in Washington, the disclosure of the ruling Republicans’ plot made the House call for Nixon’s impeachment. Hence, to prevent further controversy, he resigned by handing over power for the remaining two years of his term to vice-president, Gerald Ford.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, prominent Iranian writer and translator, Abu’l-Qassem Najafabadi “Payandeh”, passed away at the age of 71. Born in Najafabad, after completing his studies in Isfahan, he settled in Tehran, and became a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines. For over 40 years he was active in producing several works, which included a translation of the holy Qur’an, as well as the translations of important Arabic works into Persian, such as “Murouj az-Zahab” of the historian al-Mas’oudi, and Abu Ja’far Tabari’s monumental history “Tarikh Rusol wa’l-Muluk”.

33 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, in the Persian Gulf, pilot of an Iranian jet showed his remarkable dexterity and control of the skies when targeted by US Navy F-14 "Tomcat" fighter. In the ensuing dogfight, the Iranian pilot deftly evaded the two missiles fired at it by the aggressor American jet-fighter whose volleys completely missed their target, thus causing frustration and forcing it to flee the Iranian skies in fear of retaliatory action by Iran.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1985 AD, Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Saqafi, passed away at the age of 90. Born in Tehran, he was a product of the Qom Seminary. He spent his life promoting Islam and writing books on exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, theology, jurisprudence and hadith. Among his works is the 5-volume “Ravaan-e Javid”.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, a day after the US-Saudi created Taliban terrorists occupied the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif and violated the diplomatic immunity of the Iranian consulate by brutally martyring 8 diplomats and IRNA journalist Mahmoud Saremi, they massacred in cold blood over four thousand men, women, and children of the Hazara Shi’a Muslim community.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Palestinian revolutionary poet and author, Mahmoud Darwish, who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet, died at the age of 66, three days after heart surgery at a hospital in Houston, US. His body was flown to Ramallah in the West Bank of River Jordan for burial. Born in al-Birwa in Western Galilee and driven into exile along with his parents by illegal Zionist settlers from Europe who set up the spurious state of Israel, he later returned briefly to Occupied Palestine before being banned from re-entry because of his joining of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). In his works, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of the Garden of Eden, birth, resurrection, the anguish of dispossession and exile. He has been described as incarnating and reflecting the tradition of the political poet in Islam, and the man of action whose action is poetry. His prose works include “Farewell War Farewell Peace”, “A River Dies of Thirst”, and “Something about the Homeland”. Among his famous poetical works are “Wingless Birds”, “Ode to Beirut”, and “The Adam of Two Edens”.

August 9 is observed as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s various ethnicities in their native lands. This event also recognizes the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection. It was first pronounced by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1994, marking the day of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, in 1982.

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