Today is Wednesday; 14th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 3rd of the Islamic month of Moharram 1438 lunar hijri; and October 5, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Over 3,504 lunar years ago, on this day, Prophet Joseph (Yusuf), while an under-teen boy, was rescued from the well into which his brothers had thrown him, after initial deliberation to kill him, because of their jealousy towards him for the deep love and affection of their father Prophet Jacob (Ya’qub) for this pious and extremely handsome son. Joseph was sold as a slave and ended up in Egypt, where Divine Providence, after having again tested his firm faith, patience, and wisdom, through ordeals that included a lengthy prison term, granted him a lofty ministerial rank in the court of the monotheistic Pharaoh. Surah Yusuf of the holy Qur’an details his interesting account – including the magnanimity he showed to his brothers – and calls it “Ahsan al-Qasas” (the Most Excellent of Accounts).

1438 solar years ago, on this day in 578 AD, Byzantine emperor, Justin II, died at the age of 58, four years after abdicating the throne in favour of Tiberius because of mental breakdown. He had succeeded his maternal uncle Justinian I and ruled for eleven years till 574 during which he was embroiled in a devastating war with the Sassanid Empire of Iran in Syria and what is now Turkey. Justin had suffered a shattering defeat at the hands of the Iranian Emperor, Khosrow I Anushiravan. The Romans agreed to pay 45,000 gold coins to Iran as war reparations.

1431 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to all humanity, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), sent letters to the world’s kings and emperors, officially inviting them to the truth of the universal religion of Islam. According to historians he sent between twelve to twenty-six letters to the then world leaders spread across the face of the earth, including the emperors of Rome, Iran, and China. Obviously, the Prophet’s approach in this regard shows that Islam speaks with logic and reasoning in its invitation to righteousness. A few years following these official invitations, Islam spectacularly spread across the major part of the known world.

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Omayyad commander, Omar ibn Sa’d arrived in Karbala with a force of 4,000 armed men to surround the small band of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Omar was sent by the oppressive governor of Kufa, Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, to demand oath of allegiance from the Prophet’s grandson for the ungodly rule of Yazid, or bring him to his court. The Imam refused to yield to oppression and injustice, and for the next few days thousands of more forces converged on Karbala. Finally, on the 10th of Moharram, Imam Husain (AS), bravely courted martyrdom in a unequal battle that has made his stand and cause immortal, inspiring people in every age against oppression.

1186 lunar years ago, on this day in 252 AH, Musta'in-Billah the 12th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime was deposed by his masters, the powerful Turkic guards that had installed him as ruler in Samarra, after the suspicious death of his cousin, Muntasir-Billah. During his 4-year rule, Musta'in suffered two disastrous defeats at the hands of Christians in Armenia, and his only success was his killing in unequal combat near Kufa, of the Prophet's descendant, Yayha Ibn Umar Ibn Yahya Ibn Hussain Ibn Zayd the Martyr – son of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).The cause of his downfall was his quarrel with the Turkish guards, who released Mu'taz, the son of the murdered Mutawakkil-Billah from prison and declared him the 13th Abbasid caliph. Musta'in, the son of Wathiq-Billah, the 9th Abbasid caliph – whose corpse lay in negligence with eyes eaten by rats as his brother Mutawakkil immediately celebrated his own rise to power as the next caliph with festivities – was further humiliated by humbly paying homage to the new caliph, who imprisoned him Baghdad and soon had him murdered. When the severed head was brought before Mu'taz who was playing chess, he said: "lay it aside, till I have finished the game." Then having satisfied himself that it was really the head of his cousin, he commanded 500 pieces of gold to be given to the assassin as reward. These events occurred during the last days of the 34-year imamate of the Prophet’s 10th Infallible Successor, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), who in 254 AH was martyred through poisoning by Mu’taz in Samarra, where he was kept under virtual house arrest.

802 solar years ago, on this day in 1214 AD, Alfonso VIII of Castile died at the age of 59. An avowed enemy of Muslims, in 1195 at the Battle of Alarcos in Spain he and his 300,000 strong army had suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the al-Muwahidin ruler, Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur Ibn Tifshin. It resulted in the retreat of the Christian forces to Toledo while the Muslims liberated the occupied regions of Trujillo, Montanchez and Talavera. Alfonso VIII took advantage of the al-Muwahidin ruler’s death and assembled Christian mercenaries from different parts of Europe to attack and harass the Spanish Muslims once again. In 1212 he launched a fresh aggression on Spanish Muslim territories, and at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa near Santa Elena, he defeated the Mohammad an-Nasr of Granada

566 solar years ago, on this day in 1450 AD, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria. Throughout history Jews have been severely persecuted by the Christians because of their indulgence in usury and blaspheming of the spotlessly pure personalities of Prophet Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (peace upon them).

434 solar years ago, on this day in 1582 AD, although a normal date for most of the world still using the Julian calendar, in the Catholic countries of Italy, Portugal, Spain and Poland, Friday October 5 was the first of ten days that were skipped with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar. In these four countries, Thursday 4 October 1582 was the last day the Julian calendar was used, and the next day became 15 October as per the decree of Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced this change to realign the calendar with the spring and autumn equinoxes. Britain and its colonies resisted this change by the Catholic Pope, and used the Julian calendar for more than a century and a half until 2 September 1752, while Russia used it till 1918. The Islamic solar hijri calendar which starts on the exact time of the spring equinox and is in use in Iran, Afghanistan and the peoples of neighbouring countries, is far more perfect than the Gregorian calendar that was imposed by the colonial powers on the rest of the world after World War I.

203 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, Tecumseh, Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy, known as Tecumseh's Confederacy, which opposed expansionism of the United States of America and strove to set up an independent Amerindian State, was treacherously killed by the US regime at the age of 45, a year after he had successfully helped Britain seize Detroit in the War of 1812. Tecumseh’s father and his tribe had also sided with the British during the revolt of the 13 New England colonies that banded together to set up the United States of America (USA). In 1808, faced with westward expansion of the USA, the Shawnees settled in what is now Prophetstown in present-day Indiana, with a vision of establishing an independent Native American nation east of the Mississippi under British protection, Tecumseh attracted additional tribes to the confederacy from the south. Prior to the capture of Detroit in 1812, Tecumseh had delivered a powerful speech for Amerindian independence while standing upon a rock that is preserved to this day at Fort Malden. With the killing of Tecumseh, his confederation disintegrated, and the Native Americans had to move west again, yet Tecumseh became an iconic folk hero in American and Canadian history.

197 lunar years ago, on this day in 1241 AH, the second Russo-Iranian war started. The cause was the continued hostility of Russia that had seized the northwestern territories of Iran in the Caucasus. Despite the courage displayed by Prince Abbas Mirza, who achieved initial success and pushed back the Russians, the Iranian army was defeated because of lack of supply and support from Tehran, where King Fath-Ali Shah was immersed in inefficiency and pleasures. The disgraceful Turkmenchai Treaty was forced upon Iran, which had to cede to Russia the region of Daghestan west of the Caspian Sea, and areas north of the River Aras, including what is now called the Republic of Azerbaijan.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1864 AD, the French chemist, industrialist and inventor, Louis Jean Lumiere was born. He worked with his brother Auguste, to make pioneering motion-picture equipment by inventing the 25-lb Cinematograph twin-function projector and camera, which improved on Thomas Edison's Kinescope by adding an intermittent film motion mechanism (based on the sewing machine). It was first demonstrated to an invited audience on 22 March 1895, showing their first film that depicted workers leaving the Lumière factory. The hugely successful first public screening on 28 December 1895 of their films in Paris was the “birth” of the cinema. Louis Lumiere died in 1948.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1864 AD, the Indian city of Calcutta was almost totally destroyed by a cyclone originating from the Bay of Bengal, resulting in the death of at least 70,000 people.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, the strategic port of Salonika in northeastern Greece was seized by Axis Powers during an important military operation of World War I. Britain, France, and Russia suffered defeat at the hands of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, losing half of their forces. World War I was eventually won by the Allied Powers resulting in the loss of huge territories for the Ottoman Turks.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, a massive earthquake devastated Eshqabad city, the capital of what is now the Republic of Turkmenistan, resulting in the death of at least 110,000 people.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, French archaeologist Claude-Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer, who was the first excavator at Ras Shamra in Syria, died at the age of 84. The site, Ugarit (Minet el-Beida), dates back to the sixth or seventh millennium BC nestled in the shadow of the Jebel al-Aqra (Mount Sanpanu) by the Mediterranean Sea, 10-km north of present-day Syrian port, Latakia. It was discovered accidentally in 1928 when a peasant's plow hit the stones of a vaulted tomb. In 1929, Schaeffer began a lifetime excavating there. His stratographic soundings revealed five separate archaeological levels. The uppermost dates from the Late Bronze Age, 1600-1200 B.C., and the time of Ugarit's demise. The deeper levels date from the Middle Bronze Age, Early Bronze Age, Chalcolithic age of stone and copper, and the Neolithic

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the Serbian dictator and perpetrator of the gory Balkan wars, Slobodan Milosevic, was ousted following months of public protests and international sanctions. He was president of Serbia from 1990 to 1997 before becoming Yugoslav president. During the Bosnian war, he was an accomplice in the crimes of the Serbs against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. Nine months after his ouster, he was handed over to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but died in prison amid the sluggish progress of his prosecution.

9 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, US occupation forces backed by attack aircraft indiscriminately killed more than 30 men, women, and children, of Iraq’s Shi’a Muslim majority, north of Baghdad. The US is responsible for the direct or indirect death of at least 1.2 million Iraqis during its decade-long occupation of Iraq.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, American inventor and entrepreneur, Steven Paul Jobs, who in 1976 co-founded Apple Inc. with Steve Wozniak to manufacture personal computers, died at the age of 56. During his life he was issued or applied for 338 patents as either inventor or co-inventor of not only applications in computers, portable electronic devices and user interfaces, but also a number of others in a range of technologies. From the outset, he was active in all aspects of the Apple Company, designing, developing and marketing. After the initial success of the Apple II series of personal computers, the Macintosh superseded it with a mouse-driven graphical interface. Jobs kept Apple at the forefront of innovative, functional, user-friendly designs with new products including the iPad tablet and iPhone. He was also involved with computer graphics movies through his purchase (in 1986) of the company that became Pixar.

5 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, a kangaroo court set up by the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime in Bahrain, sentenced 19 more peaceful protestors to prison, raising to 81 the total number of persons imprisoned in the sham trial. The overwhelming majority of the people of Bahrain are continuing their peaceful protests for freedom of the Persian Gulf island state that was occupied in the early 19th century by the Aal-e Khalifa pirates, with British help, at a time when Qajarid Iran has become weak. The aspiration of the Bahraini people for democracy has faced the torture of the regime, which with the assistance of the equally tyrannical Aal-e Saud regime has destroyed mosques and husseiniyahs, and desecrated copies of the holy Qur’an.

AS/ME