Today is Friday; 13th of the Iranian month of Dey 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and January 3, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2126 solar years ago, on this day in 106 BC, Marcus Cicero, Roman orator, statesman and author, was born. He was elected Consul in 63. He chose to support Pompey over Julius Caesar and was murdered by Mark Antony in 43 at the age of 63 years. One of his sayings is: "What is more unwise than to mistake uncertainty for certainty, falsehood for truth?"

1052 lunar years ago, on this day in 389 AH, Ibn Ghalboun, the expert Qur’an reciter and authority on Hadith, passed away in Aleppo, Syria. Born in Syria he spent most of his life in Egypt, studying under leading scholars, and later grooming students in the field of Qur’anic and Hadith sciences. His most important work is “al-Irshaad” on the seven different styles of recitation of the holy Qur’an.

519 solar years ago, on this day in 1501 AD, Amir Ali Shir Navai, the acclaimed Central Asian politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet, passed away at the age of 63 in Herat and his body was taken to Mashhad for burial in the porch he had built at the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in the Khorasani capital, Herat, which is currently in western Afghanistan, he is considered the Father of Chagatai Turkic literature, and was a prolific author. He also wrote and composed poems in Persian under the penname Fani, and has excellent compilations in this language as well to his credit. He studied in Mashhad, Herat and Samarqand, and when his childhood friend, Sultan Husayn Bayqarah became the principal Timurid ruler of Khorasan, he joined his service and for almost 40 years devoted his efforts to cultural developments including fine arts and the building of public utility works like schools, mosques, caravanserais and hospitals. In Mashhad, he carried out extensions in the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS). He is regarded as a national hero in the modern republic of Uzbekistan and is famous all over the Turkic-speaking world.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1777 AD, American General George Washington defeated British General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton in a victory that inspired people of the thirteen New England colonies with confidence to defeat the king’s forces. Cornwallis later earned lasting notoriety for his imperialist policies against the people of India and the violation of the treaty to impose the war on Fath Ali Khan Tipu Sultan of Mysore to kill the king and annex the Muslim kingdom.

238 solar years ago, on this day in 1782 AD, the Sylhet District in what is now northeast Bangladesh was taken over by the British as part of their expansion policy. It was previously called Jalalabad in memory of Shah Jalal Naqshbandi, a Sufi saint of Iranian origin, who was born in Konya in what is now Turkey in the time of the famous Persian mystic and poet, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Roumi Balkhi. In 1303 AD, with his arrival in Sylhet along with 360 disciples, Islam began to spread and the local Hindus, Buddhists and pagans of the area, embraced the truth of Islam. At the same time Muslim rule was established by Sikandar Ghazi and the region was included in the dominion of the Delhi-based Tughlaq Turkic Dynasty of India. His shrine is the main center of pilgrimage in Sylhet till this day, along with that of Seyyed Zaker Shah Zaidi al-Fatemi, a descendent of Martyr Zaid, the son of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) 4th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS). Today, almost 90 percent of the people of Sylhet are Muslims.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, Emperor Meiji ascended the throne of Japan and assumed power. The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns. The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started.

145 solar years ago, on this day in 1875 AD, the French literary figure and linguist, Pierre Larousse, passed away at the age of 58. After years of study, he compiled the Larousse Lexicon.

109 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroyed the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan, which is now the Republic of Kazakhstan.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, the British created the politically short-lived West Indies Federation in Caribbean Sea which included Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the Windward and Leeward Islands. Because of numerous problems, it was dissolved by the British in 1963, with nine provinces becoming independent sovereign states. Despite the collapse of the Federation, the West Indies (with addition of Guyana) continues to field a joint cricket team for international competition.

59 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist. The US has refused to relinquish its occupation of Guantanamo Bay base where it has set up a subhuman prison that holds nationals of several countries, who are denied any legal access and are brutally tortured.

40 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the first gathering of the world’s liberation movements opened in Tehran. The main goals of this gathering was to familiarize the international community with the wide-scale dimensions of the Islamic Revolution; to introduce the world’s liberation movements; and to set the stage for further unity of these movements against the injustices of Global Arrogance.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the treaty for reduction of atomic weapons was signed by Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, and the US president, George Bush Sr., with the two countries pledging to reduce their nuclear arsenal by two thirds. The US agreed to the treaty because following the collapse of Soviet Union, Moscow had started to cooperate with the West and was not considered as a major threat to Washington. Nonetheless, instead of dismantling its nuclear arms, the US stockpiled them, and Russia, in protest to Washington’s refusal to deliver on its vows stopped dismantling its nuclear warfare. Meanwhile, in April 2010, the US and Russian presidents signed a new START, according to which the number of nuclear warheads of each side is reduced to 1550.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, in a miraculous event, rescuers in Iran pulled a 97-year old woman named Shahrbanou Mazandarani from the rubble in the city of Bam, 9 days after the devastating earthquake that killed about 40,000.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Mojtaba Shahidi Kalhori Tehrani, passed away at the age of 75. Born in Tehran in an academic family, at the age of 18 he entered the seminary in holy Qom and studied under prominent Ulema such as the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi, and the famous exegete of the holy Qur’an, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabai. At the young age of 25, he attained the status of ijtehad. As a close associate of the Late Imam, he played an important role in collection of his mentor’s theological works. He taught ethics and theology in Tehran for 40 years, grooming numerous students. Among his works, mention can be made of “Akhlaaq-e Ilahi”, and “Solouk-e Ashurai”.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2015 AD, Saudi supported Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists razed the entire town of Baga in northeast Nigeria, starting the 2015 Baga massacre and slaughtering as many as 2,000 men, women and children.

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