Today is Friday; 12th of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 30th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Qa’dah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 2, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2506 solar years ago, on this day in 490 BC, Pheidippides, supposed to be a Greek runner and inspiration for the modern marathon sporting event, is said to have run from Marathon to Athens in under 36 hours to deliver news of a brief military setback of the Persian fleet sent by Iran’s Achaemenid emperor, Darius I to capture Athens.It is claimed that he was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon. He ran the 40 km distance from the battlefield to Athens to announce news of the outcome of the Battle of Marathon, and then collapsed and died. There is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend. It first appears in the Roman literary figure Plutarch's work “On the Glory of Athens” in the 1^st century AD which quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work. Herodotus says that the Athenian army, having fought the grueling battle to hold back the Persian fleet and fearing a naval raid by the Iranians on undefended Athens, marched quickly back from the battle to Athens, arriving the same day. Ten years later in 480 BC, Persians under Emperor Xerxes captured and destroyed Athens when Iran conquered the whole of Greece. The marathon legend was revived last century as part of the West’s bid to impose the Greco-Roman culture on the rest of the world, when a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 km (26 miles and 385 yards) was named “marathon” and included in the Olympics and other sporting events as a road race.

2060 solar years ago, on this day in 44 BC AD, Cicero, considered to be ancient Rome’s greatest orator and prose stylist, launched the first of his ‘Philippics’ (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He made 14 of them over the following months, modeling his condemnations on the speeches of the Greek philosopher Demosthenes denunciations of Macedonia’s Phillip II (hence Philippics).Cicero's attacks on Antony were neither forgiven nor forgotten, with the result that he was proscribed and killed in 43 BC. His head and hands were publicly displayed in the Roman Forum to discourage any who would oppose the new Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus.

2047 solar years ago, on this day in 31 BC, the Battle of Actium as the Final War of the Roman Republic was fought off the western coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea near the city of Actium by forces of Octavian (the future Augustus Caesar) to defeat troops under Mark Antony and his mistress the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Octavian's victory enabled him to consolidate his power over Rome and its dominions. He adopted the title of “Princeps” (first citizen) and some years later was awarded the title of “Augustus” (revered) by the Roman Senate, which fully supported his wars against Anthony, who came to be viewed as a rebel, especially after the disastrous war (funded by Cleopatra and without Rome’s permission) against Iran’s Parthian Empire in what are now Armenia, Turkey and Syria. Historians regard the ascension of Augustus (grand nephew of the dictator Julius Caesar) as end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1230 solar years ago, on this day in 786 AD, Musa al-Hadi Ibn Mahdi, the 4^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died at the age of 23 under suspicious circumstances after a reign of only a year and few months, and was immediately succeeded on the same day by his brother, Haroun Rashid, in what is known as the "Night of the three Caliphs" since Mamoun was also born on that eve. There are conflicting reports of his death, ranging from severe ulcer in the abdomen to poisoning and suffocation by slave girls on the orders of his own mother, the concubine Khayzarun, who was more attached to her younger son, Haroun. Like the rest of the Abbasid usurpers, Hadi was a bitter enemy of the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The most brutal incident of his short reign was the tragedy of Fakh near Mecca, where Hussain Ibn Ali Ibn Hassan, a descendent of the Prophet's elder grandson, Imam Hasan al-Mojtaba (AS), was martyred along with his brothers and followers, and their heads mounted on lances were taken to the caliph's court. Among the few survivors, was Idris Ibn Abdullah al-Hasani, who managed to escape to Egypt, where aided by Wadhih, a postal manager, he reached Morocco, and founded the Idrisi Shi'ite Muslim state that flourished for almost 200 years, independent of the Abbasid caliphate. Hadi tried to implicate the Prophet's 7^th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), in the Fakh Uprising but died before he could commit any other foul deed.

1217 lunar years ago, on this day in 220 AH, Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS) the 9^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) attained martyrdom in Baghdad as a result of a fatal dose of poison administered by Mu'tasim, the 8^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Known as Jawad or the Generous, because of his generosity in both spiritual and material matters, he was only 25 years old on this day, having been entrusted with the responsibility of Imamate by God Almighty 17 years ago at the tender age of 8 years, following the martyrdom of his father, Imam Reza (AS) in distant Khorasan. Like the Prophets Jesus and John the Baptist, who since childhood displayed the God-given wisdom, Imam Jawad (AS) enlightened all those who came into contact with him. His memorable debates with scholars, while yet a boy, are recorded in books of history and hadith. We hereby extend our heartfelt condolences on the martyrdom anniversary of the 9^th Imam and will present you a special feature later in our programme.

824 solar years ago, on this day in 1192 AD, the Treaty of Jaffa was signed between the Kurdish ruler of Egypt and Syria, Salah od-Din Ayyubi and Richard I of England, leading to the end of the Third Crusade launched on Palestine and Syria by European Christian invaders. The treaty guaranteed safe passage of Christians and Muslims through Palestine whilst also stating that the Christians would hold the coast from Tyre to Jaffa. However Asqalon's fortifications were to be demolished and the town returned to Salah od-din. The battle was a decisive encounter, in that it forced Salah od-Din to negotiate an end to the immediate hostilities.

350 solar years ago, on this day in 1666 AD, the Great Fire of London burned for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including the landmark St Paul's Cathedral.

215 solar years ago, on this day in 1801 AD, a joint Ottoman-British force succeeded in defeating and forcing to withdraw from Egypt, the French occupation army left behind by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

151 solar years ago, on this day in 1865 AD, William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician in the fields of optics, geometrics, and classical mechanics, died at the age of 60. By age 12, Hamilton had already learned fourteen languages when he met the American, Zerah Colburn, who could perform amazing mental arithmetical feats, and they joined in competitions. At 15, he began to study the works of La Place and Isaac Newton, and by age 17 had become the greatest living mathematician. He contributed to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra. His invention of the calculus of quaternions enabled a three-dimensional algebra or geometry which provided a basis for the later development of quantum mechanics.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1898 AD, the Battle of Omdurman was fought near Khartoum by a joint force of British and Egyptian troops to defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by the self-styled Mahdi and establish Britain’s dominance in Sudan. Anglo-Egyptian lines under General Kitchener were charged by 50,000 poorly-armed Dervishes, who were mowed down by howitzers, machine guns and rifles, resulting in 11,000 dead and 16,000 injured. Winston Churchill, the future prime minister of Britain during World War 2, then serving as a young lieutenant, led one of the last and most useless cavalry charges in history.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, the leader of the anti-colonial movement in southern Iran, Raees Ali Delvari, attained martyrdom at the hands of the British invaders, at Tangestan near Bushehr, after seven years of resistance. The uprising was the result of a fatwa for jihad issued by the ulema for defence of the country. Delvari and his courageous comrades foiled the attacks of well-equipped British troops for occupation of the Port of Bushehr, before their martyrdom.

79 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, Pierre de Coubertin, French educator and historian, and founder of the International Olympic Committee, died in Geneva at the age of 74. He is considered the father of the Olympic Games, which he revived it in 1896 on the pattern of the ancient Greek games.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, declared independence from France, following Japan's defeat in World War 2 and its retreat from Southeast Asia. The French, however, attacked Vietnam in 1946 in a bid to re-impose their colonial rule, but after eight years of fighting were forced to withdraw. The US then interfered and occupied southern Vietnam and set up a puppet regime in Saigon for terrorizing the country on the pretext of stopping the spread of communism. In 1975 after their failure to crush the resistance of the Vietnamese people, despite massive bombing and use of internationally banned chemical weapons, American forces humiliatingly fled Vietnam. Vietnam was united once again. Vietnam covers an area of 329,566 sq km and shares borders with China, Laos, and Cambodia.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, upon the unconditional surrender of Japan, World War II ended, and the Americans occupied this country imposing humiliating terms on the Japanese people. Although Japan was freed of US hegemony, American troops have refused to vacate Okinawa Island.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese freedom fighter and 1^st President of Vietnam, died at the age of 79 from heart failure at his home in Hanoi in the midst of the American-imposed war. Given the name Nguyen Sinh Cung at birth, after mastering Chinese language, which was a prerequisite to the study of Confucianism, he studied French and departed for France to enroll at the French Colonial Administrative School, but was rejected. He decided to travel around the world by working on ships and visited many countries from 1911 to 1917, including the US, where he worked for some years, before returning to France after World War I. From 1919 to1923 he stayed in Paris, where he joined a group of Vietnamese nationalists, whose petition for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles Peace Talks, was ignored. The group, citing the language and spirit of the US Declaration of Independence, expected US President Woodrow Wilson to help end French colonial rule in Vietnam and ensure the formation of a nationalist government, but were given a cold shoulder. This rejection radicalized Nguyen, while making him a symbol of the anti-colonial movement at home in Vietnam, and forcing him to travel to Moscow where he joined the communists. He made frequent trips to China, forging ties with the communists, travelling to Hong Kong, Thailand, and India, before returning to Moscow. In 1940, he took the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning “He Who has been enlightened”, and the next year returned to Vietnam to lead the Viet Minh independence movement. His guerrilla forces saw many successful military actions against the French and against the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II. Following the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Viet Minh, he became Premier of the provisional government and issued declaration for independence of Vietnam. Although he convinced Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate, and petitioned US President Harry S. Truman to support Vietnam’s bid for independence, citing the Atlantic Charter, he was ignored. He resolved to fight France’s bid to re-impose colonial rule, and following the decisive defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, made a provisional division of Vietnam at the 17^th parallel, with control of the north given to the Viet Minh as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and the south becoming the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai, who was soon ousted. The refusal of the South to enter into negotiations with North Vietnam about holding nationwide elections in 1956, as had been stipulated by the Geneva Conference, eventually led to war breaking out again in 1959. This time, the US intervened and started the catastrophic Vietnam War, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people were massacred by the Americans, who had to finally withdraw in humiliation in 1975, as the two parts of Vietnam became united once again into a single country.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, the “Father of Modern Physics in Iran”, Professor Seyyed Mahmoud Hessabi, passed away in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 89. An outstanding scientist, researcher and professor of University of Tehran, the services rendered by him were deeply appreciated during the congress on "60 Years of Physics in Iran". Born in Tehran to parents from the nearby town of Tafresh, he was laid to rest, according to his will, in his ancestral town. When he was seven, his family moved from Iran to Beirut in Lebanon where he attended school. At seventeen he obtained his Bachelor's in Arts and Sciences from the American University of Beirut. Later he obtained his B.A. in civil engineering while working as a draftsman. He continued his studies and graduated from the Engineering School of Beirut. Hessabi was admitted to the Ecole Superieure d'Electricite, one of France's top engineering schools, and in 1925 graduated while working for French National Railway (SNCF) in the electric locomotive maintenance department. He was a scientific mind and continued his research in physics at the Sorbonne University and obtained PhD in physics from there at the age of twenty-five. He was the only Iranian student of the German-American genius, Albert Einstein, and wrote a treatise on his teacher’s death in 1955. Dr. Hessabi was a Polymath, with five bachelor's degrees in literature, civil engineering, mathematics, electrical engineering and mining engineering. He continued lecturing at University of Tehran for three working generations, teaching seven generations of students and professors. Professor Hessabi was fluent in five living languages: Persian, Arabic, French, English, and German. He was also familiar with Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Pahlavi, and Avestan, as well as Turkish and Italian, which he used for etymological studies. In 1947, he published his classic paper on "Continuous Particles". In 1957, he proposed his model of "Infinitely Extended Particles".

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1996 AD, in the Philippines, an accord was signed between President Ramos and Moro Muslim Leader, Noor Misuari, to end a quarter century of warfare during which some 120,000 people were killed. The Muslims who make up the majority in the southern parts have been marginalized by the successive regimes in Manila, and continue to be deprived of their birthrights. Islam was brought to these islands in the 1300s by traders, who succeeded in converting the local rulers and establishing the Sultanate of Sulu, long before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16^th century and the forced conversion of the people to the Catholic sect of Christianity.

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