Today is Monday; 11th of Azar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Rabi as-Sani 1441 lunar hijri; and December 2, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

610 solar years ago, on this day in 1409 AD, Leipzig University, was founded in the State of Saxony, Germany, by Frederick I, Elector of Saxony and his brother William II, Margrave of Meissen. It is one of the oldest universities in the world and its famous alumni include the scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as well as nine Nobel laureates are associated with this university.

509 solar years ago, on this day in 1510 AD, the Battle of Marv ended in decisive victory for Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran, and liberation of the whole northern Khorasan (southern Turkmenistan, western and northern Afghanistan), from the Uzbek usurper Muhammad Shaybani Khan, who was killed when trying to flee the battlefield. At the time of Shaybani's death, the newly arrived Uzbeks controlled all of Transoxiana, that is, the area between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya (the Rivers Oxus and Jaxartes). Shaybani, a descendant of Shayban, the fifth son of Jochi (eldest son of the bloodthirsty Mongol Genghis Khan), was initially an Uzbek warrior leading a contingent of 3,000 in the army of the Timurid ruler of Samarqand and Bukhara, Sultan Ahmed Mirza. When Sultan Ahmed was engaged in war against Sultan Mahmud Khan of Moghulistan (Kirghizstan/Xinxiang), Shaybani secretly met the Moghul Khan and agreed to betray and plunder Sultan Ahmed's army. This happened in the Battle of the Chirciq River in 1488, and the victorious Mahmoud rewarded the betrayer with some towns and cities. Here, however, Shaybani oppressed the local Kazakhs, resulting in a war between Moghulistan and the Kazakh Khanate, which defeated Sultan Mahmud, but the treacherous Shaybani gained power among the Uzbek tribes, and by 1500 decided to seize Samarqand and Bukhara from his former Timurid masters. Shaybani soon lost Samarqand to the young Timurid prince, Mohammad Zaheer od-din Babar – the future founder of the Moghal Empire of the northern subcontinent, but in 1505 recaptured it. In 1506 he seized Bukhara and in 1507 occupied Herat, the southern capital of the Timurids, whose ruler Badi oz-Zamaan Mirza sought asylum in Tabriz at the court of Shah Ismail and apprised him of the critical situation in Khorasan. By 1509 Shah Ismail had unified all of Iran, while Shaybani, fresh from his pillaging of the Kazakh Khanate to his north in 1508–09, turned his attention to the south to penetrate deeper into Khorasan. Shah Ismail reached Khorasan with great speed, making Shaybani retreat to Marv. The Safavid forces, though outnumbered, lured the huge Uzbek army to attack, and ambushed and destroyed them. The Safavids did not march further north but allowed Babar Mirza to take charge of the former Timurid capital Samarqand, from which the latter was soon driven by Shaybani’s uncle and cousin, whose descendants continued to rule Bukhara until 1598 and Khwarezm until 1687.

472 solar years ago, on this day in 1547 AD, Hernan Cortes, the notorious Spanish invader and destroyer of the Aztec Amerindian Empire through deceit and treachery, died embittered in Spain at the age of 62. He took Emperor Cuauhtemoc and several other indigenous nobles as prisoners, forced them to accompany him to Honduras, and while in the Chontal Maya capital of Itzamkanac, treacherously murdered them. He looted the gold and silver of the Aztecs and destroyed flourishing Amerindian cities. 

425 solar years ago, on this day in 1594 AD, Flemish (Dutch) philosopher and cartographer, Gerardus Mercator, who coined the word “Atlas” for a collection of maps, died at the age of 82. Highly influenced by Muslim geographers, their travels and world maps, such as Seyyed al-Idrisi (who flourished centuries earlier in Sicily under King Rogers II), his dream was to publish a volume of maps, which would give a history of the world since creation. His "Atlas", the first section of which came out in 1569, contained a chronology of his version of creation till 1568.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1804 AD, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, General Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France, the first French Emperor in a thousand years. Born in Corsica in a relatively modest family of Italian ancestry, he was well-educated, although he spoke French with a heavy Corsican accent. He joined the army and rose rapidly during the later stages of the French Revolution. He became prominent under the First French Republic, and on being appointed general, he established his reputation as a military leader, especially in his Italian and Egyptian campaigns. On return to France, he contrived to undermine the elected assembly and assumed totalitarian powers, embroiling France in continental wars for the next ten years for supremacy over all Europe. After his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled St. Helena, where it is said the British poisoned him to death.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1804 AD, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Austerlitz resulted in a resounding victory for French troops over a joint Russo-Austrian force. Also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, it involved French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander I of the Russian Empire and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II of Austro-Hungary. The battle took place in the present day Czech Republic, and was a tactical masterpiece of the same stature as the ancient Battle of Gaugamela in which Alexander of Macedonia defeated Acheamenid Emperor Darius III of the Persian Empire. 

196 solar years ago, on this day in 1823 AD, the Monroe Doctrine was declared by the United States of America, warning European colonial powers against interfering in both North and South America. In his State of the Union message, US President James Monroe also proclaimed American neutrality in all European conflicts.

174 solar years ago, on this day in 1845 AD, US president, James K. Polk, in a message dubbed “Manifest Destiny”, called for an expansionist policy for seizure of the vast western territories of the native Amerindians and also Spanish/Mexican states.

174 lunar years ago, on this day in 1267 AH, the first Persian-language paper of Iran, “Vaqayeh Ettefaqiyeh”, was published in Tehran in the third year of Naser od-Din Shah Qajar's reign, due to the effort of the famous vizier, Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir. The editor-in-chief was Mirza Tazkerahchi, and its columns included news on the Iranian government, world developments, and translation of scientific articles published in the European press. Ironically, the 49th edition of this paper reported the martyrdom of this highly qualified, patriotic premier. Overall, 472 editions of this paper were published and later its publication continued under other names.

168 solar years ago, on this day in 1851 AD, French President Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Second Republic, and the next year on this same date, declared himself, Emperor Napoleon III. The nephew and heir of Napoleon I and son of Louis Bonaparte (who had been placed as king of Holland from 1805-1810 by his famous elder brother), he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. However, when he was blocked by the constitution and parliament from running for a second term, he organized a coup d’etat in 1851, and took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. One of the first priorities of Napoleon III was modernization of the French economy. During his 18-year rule, he initiated an energetic foreign policy which aimed to remove the limitations imposed on France since 1815, and succeeded in reasserting French influence in Europe and the French colonial empire. He spearheaded allied action against Russia in the Crimean War and secured the Papal States against annexation by Italy by defeating the Italians at Mentana. In Southeast Asia, he established French rule in what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, as well as New Caledonia. French interests in China were upheld in the Second Opium War; an abortive campaign against Korea was launched in 1866 while a military mission to Japan ended in failure. French intervention in Mexico was also unsuccessful, and ended in 1867 due to mounting Mexican resistance and US diplomatic pressure. Eventually, the French Empire was overthrown three days after his defeat 1870 in the Battle of Sedan by the Prussian (Germany) Empire that resulted in his capture, imprisonment and later exile to London where he died three years later at the age of 65. Domestically, Napoleon III's reign saw an era of prosperity and industrialization. He reconstructed Paris, built new aqueducts, rebuilt the sewers, created new boulevards and avenues and laid parks.

113 lunar years ago, on this day in 1328 AH, Leaders of Iran’s Constitutional Movement, Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan, arrived in Tehran after successfully defeating the forces of the corrupt Qajarid ruler, Mohammad Ali Shah, who had besieged Tabriz in northwestern Iran for 11 months. The courage and prudence of Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan was among the key leading factors to the success of the Iranian people’s movement against despotism.

98 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, the famous freedom-fighter, Mirza Kouchak-Khan Jangali, attained martyrdom at the hands of agents of the British-installed Pahlavi potentate of Iran, Reza Khan, who acted in collaboration with the Russians and the British. He attended Islamic schools at a young age and later joined the freedom seekers. During World War I, he was witness to the chaotic state of Iran, which was occupied by foreign powers. He championed Islamic unity and formed a militia to fight against oppression and colonialism. In 1919, the British forced a treaty on the weak Qajarid monarchy that led to further infiltration of the British in Iran. This treaty set the stage for movements against foreign powers’ interference in Iran. Although Kouchak Khan gained significant victories at the start of his struggles against the regime, his forces were scattered because of conspiracies hatched by Britain and the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Kouchak Khan, who had left his hometown to gather forces, fell ill due to snowstorms in the forests of northern Iran, where regime agents beheaded him.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD, the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois. At the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi and his team achieved the world's first artificial nuclear chain reaction, in a makeshift lab underneath the University's football stands at Stagg Field. Work on the experimental pile had begun on 16 November 1942. It was a prodigious effort. Physicists and staffers, working around the clock, built a lattice of 57 layers of uranium metal and uranium oxide embedded in graphite blocks. A wooden structure supported the graphite pile. The chain reaction was part of the Manhattan Project, a secret wartime project to develop nuclear weapons, which initiated the modern nuclear age. This was a discovery that changed the world

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1950 AD, during the US war to either occupy or divide the Korean Peninsula, the Chinese army rushing to the help of the Koreans decisively defeated the American forces operating under so-called UN command, at the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, and drove them south of the 38^th parallel.

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1954 AD, Laos, in Southeast Asia gained independence from French colonial rule that had been imposed in 1893. Following independence, a civil war started and continued till 1975 when the communists overthrew the king and declared the country a republic. Laos is situated in southeastern Asia. It covers an area of 236800 sq km and shares borders with China, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Fidel Castro landed in Cuba aboard the Yatch “Granma” with a group of 81 lightly armed revolutionaries, including his brother, Raul, and the famous Argentine revolutionary, Dr. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevera, after a year and four months in exile, following his release from prison in the wake of the attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, as part of the struggle to liberate his homeland from the US-backed regime of General Fulgencio Batista. In January 1957, the handful of revolutionaries burst out from their jungle hideout to launch guerilla warfare that began to attract hundreds and soon thousands of oppressed peasants to their cause. In 1958, Castro attacked the military bases and sensitive points of the capital, Havana, and other cities, making Batista seek shelter in a US base in Cuba, before fleeing to the US with as much as 300 million dollars. Castro, the son of a Spanish migrant to Cuba, served as Prime Minister from February 1959 to December 1976, and subsequently as president till 2008, when he retired due to ill-health by handing over power to his brother Raul. He died in 2016 in Cuba at the age of 90.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1971 AD, the seven Persian Gulf sheikhdoms of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain, and Fujairah, banded together as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on gaining independence from 51 years of British colonial rule. The day is marked as UAE National Day. Initially, Qatar joined the confederation but soon withdrew. The UAE covers an area of 83,600 sq km, and lies on the southern coastlines of Persian Gulf. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar.

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