Today is Wednesday; 13th of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 6th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1438 lunar hijri; and May 3, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

3392 solar years ago, on this day in 1375 BC, the oldest recorded eclipse occurred, according to one plausible interpretation of a date inscribed on a clay tablet retrieved from the ancient city of Ugarit, Syria.

588 solar years ago, on this day in 1429 AD, the French national heroine, Jeanne d’Arc, known to the English as Joan of Arc or Maid of Orleans, started her uprising for the liberation of parts of French territory from the occupation of England. She led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, transferred to the English in exchange for money, put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais for charges of insubordination and heterodoxy, and burned at the stake as a heretic in 1431 when she was only 19 years old.

548 solar years ago, on this day in 1469 AD, the Italian historian and philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, was born in Florence. Regarded as a founder of modern (unprincipled) political science, he was a diplomat, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic, serving as secretary to the Second Chancery from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici family were out of power. He wrote his political theory titled “The Prince” after the Medici had recovered power and he no longer held a position of responsibility. He believed that there is no harm in acquiring power and maintain it through any means possible including deceit and oppression, without regard for ethical principles or moral and religious values. Machiavelli died in 1527.

536 solar years ago, on this day in 1481 AD, the largest of three earthquakes struck the small island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea (off the coast of Turkey) causing an estimated 30,000 casualties. It was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

536 solar years ago, on this day in 1481 AD, the 7th Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad II (known as al-Fateh or the Conqueror), died, after a reign of 32 years and was succeeded by his son, Bayezid II. He transformed the Ottoman state into an empire by conquering Constantinople and ending Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire. He set out to revitalize the city, renamed it Islambol (today’s Istanbul) and made it the capital of his empire. The first decree issued by him was security and freedom of the residents who were almost all Christians. Hours later, he rode to the Hagia Sofia to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque. When he stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon, the Palace of the Caesars, built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he recited the famous Persian couplet of the Iranian poet, Shaikh Sa’di:                                                 

"The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;                                                      

The owl calls the watches in the towers o fAfrasiab."                                                                            

He began to build the Grand Bazaar, and also constructed during this period was Topkapı Palace, which served as the official residence of the Ottoman sultans for the next four hundred years. The city, built by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine I, on the coastlines of Bosphorus Strait was thus transformed from a bastion of Christianity to a symbol of Islamic culture. Sultan Mohammad II extended Muslim rule as far as the borders of Italy and his death probably saved Rome from possible subjugation. He initiated administrative reforms and was fluent in several languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He invited famous scholars to his court, including the Iranian polymath, Ala od-Din Ali ibn Mohammad Qushji, who as a disciple of the famous astronomer-king Ulugh Beg, was an astronomer, mathematician and physicist from Samarqand.

502 solar years ago, on this day in 1515 AD, the Portuguese fleet occupied the Iranian Island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. In the next few years they seized more Iranian islands including Bahrain in 1521. The brutality of the Portuguese occupation forces enraged the people of Iran. Finally, upon establishment of a strong Iranian navy by the Safavid Dynasty, Shah Abbas the Great liberated Bahrain in 1602 and Hormuz in 1622.

113 lunar years ago, on this day in1325 AH, Allamah Ibrahim Khoyee attained martyrdom at the hands of agents of the Qajarid king, Mohammad Ali Shah. He was a student of the celebrated Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari, and on return to Iran from holy Najaf, was involved in the constitutional movement.

88 lunar years ago, on this day in 1350 AH, the Iranian poet and scholar, Mirza Lotf Ali Naseeri, known as Sadr ol-Afazel, passed away at the age of 82 in Tehran. Born in Shiraz, he came to Tehran in his childhood with his scholarly father, Mohammad Kazem. He became an expert in jurisprudence, hadith and exegesis of the holy Qur’an in addition to Persian and Arabic literature. As a poet, he used the penname “Fani”. Among the books written by him, mention could be made of “Asatir”, and “Dastour al-Balaghah”.    

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1939 AD, the All India Forward Bloc was formed in Calcutta by Subhash Chandra Bose, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress on April 29 after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi. The goal was to liberate India from British rule through armed struggle, if possible. In August the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc. On July 2, 1940 he was arrested and in January 1941 escaped from house arrest, and clandestinely went into exile, making his way to Germany, where he met Adolf Hitler and set up the Free India Centre in Berlin. In August 1942 the British banned the Forward Bloc. Today the party still functions in India, but in name only.

49 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, the French student movement started in Paris. Soon French workers, dissatisfied with their negligible wages, joined the protesting students. The uprising later became political and spread to several European countries and the US. The protesters demanded social reforms in favor of low-income strata, and end to US interference in Europe. The student movement fizzled out because of police brutality coupled with the deceit of politicians.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, Zakir Hussain, the 3rd President of India, died in office at the age of 72. He was born in Hyderabad Deccan into an Afridi-Pashtun family and was the first Muslim president of India. He was also a former Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, Algerian foreign minister, Mohammed Seddiq bin Yahya, was killed at the age of 50 during a diplomatic mission to try to end the war imposed by the US on the Islamic Republic of Iran through Saddam, when his plane was shot down by the Ba’thist regime near the Turkey-Iran borders. He was a veteran of the Algerian independence struggle against France, and had a distinguished record of serving his country as Minister of Information (1967–1971), Minister of Higher Education (1971–1977), Minister of Finance (1977–1979), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979-1982).

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1993 AD, the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991. UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the so-called justice minister of Bahrain’s repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, said 24 doctors and 23 paramedics, who treated injured protesters demanding their birthrights, have been charged with acts against the state and will be tried in a military court. Their prosecution began on June 6. Bahrain is in the grip of a popular uprising which has been brutally quelled by the regime with the help of the invading Saudi Arabian forces – destroying mosques and hussainiyahs, and desecrating copies of the holy Qur’an.

AS/ME