Today is Friday; 30th of the Iranian month of Tir 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 26th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1438 lunar hijri; and July 21, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1952 solar years ago, on this day in 365 AD, a tsunami devastated the city of Alexandria in Egypt, killing 5,000 people inside the city and another 45,000 outside it. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale.

1128 lunar years ago, on this day in 310 AH, the renowned Iranian Islamic historian and exegete of the holy Qur’an, Mohammad bin Jarir Tabari, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 86. Born in Amol in Tabaristan in present day Mazandaran near the Caspian Sea, he left his hometown at the age of 12 to study in Rayy, where he remained for five years studying Islam and history and was introduced to the pre-Islamic history as well. He then went to the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, for further study and in his late twenties took up travel, visiting Basra, Kufah and Wasset to meet scholars, and later going to Syria, Palestine and Egypt. After staying for three years in Egypt he returned to Baghdad, performing the Hajj pilgrimage on the way. He never married and never took a government job or judicial position. He retained close ties with his hometown, Amol, and returned at least twice, the last time in 290 AH at the age 66. He initially followed the Shafei School of jurisprudence, but later in life came up with a jurisprudential school of his own named “Jariri” after him, which, however, did not survive. Tabari’s monumental work is titled “Tarikh ar-Rusol wa’l-Mulouk” (History of Prophets and Kings). It is a universal history from the time of creation to around 302 AH, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Muslim history, as well as the history of pre-Islamic Iran, Rome, Greece, Egypt and other places. His exegesis of the holy Qur’an is titled “Jame’ al-Bayan”. He also wrote a two-volume book titled “al-Wilayah” in which he has collected various sources of the historical event of Ghadeer-Khom, where on 18^th Zilhijja, 10 AH, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) while returning from his farewell Hajj pilgrimage, was commanded by God Almighty to proclaim Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) as vicegerent.

592 solar years ago, on this day in 1425 AD, Byzantine Emperor Manuel Palaeologus died, days after signing a humiliating treaty with the expanding Ottoman Empire, whose advance into Europe he had tried to stop by forming an alliance with Hungary and other Christian states.

372 solar years ago, on this day in 1645 AD, Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issued an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.

299 solar years ago, on this day in 1718 AD, The Treaty of Passarowitz was signed between the Ottoman Empire on one side and the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Republic of Venice on the other. During the years 1714-1718, the Ottomans had been successful against Venice in Greece and Crete, in the Ottoman-Venetian War, but, in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718, they had been defeated at Petrovaradin (1716). The treaty reflected the military situation. The Ottoman Empire lost the Banat and southeastern Syrmia, central part of present-day Serbia (from Belgrade to south of Krusevac), and a tiny strip of northern Bosnia to Austria. Venice renounced claim to the Peloponnesus Peninsula and Crete, retaining only the Ionian Islands and the cities of Preveza and Arta. The result of the treaty was restoration of Habsburg rule over much of the territory of present-day Serbia, which had been lost during the Great Turkish war between 1688 and 1699.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1774 AD, the 6-year Russo-Turkish War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, according to which the weakened Ottoman Empire lost Southern Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, and Crimea to expansionist Russia. The treaty was a most humiliating blow to the once-mighty Ottoman realm. Russia gained two outlets to the Black Sea, which was no longer an Ottoman lake. The Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan’s suzerainty. The frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, which for three centuries, prior to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, had posed existential danger to Europe, would gradually shrink for another two centuries, until the Sykes-Picot accord detached its Arab possessions as well, to reduce it to modern Turkey.

234 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, the Russians, taking advantage of the weakness of Iran, flexed their military muscles in the Caucasus by declaring Georgia as their protectorate. The Georgians, which for over two millenniums were part of the Persian Empire, were banned from maintaining direct relations with either Iran or the Ottoman Turks.

219 solar years ago, on this day in 1798 AD, the Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement during the French invasion of Egypt, and resulted in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte scoring a decisive victory against the forces of the Georgian Mamluk rulers (Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey), wiping out almost the entire Egyptian army. It was the battle where Napoleon employed one of his significant contributions to military tactics, the divisional square. Actually a rectangle, the deployment of the French brigades into these massive formations repeatedly threw back multiple cavalry charges by the Egyptians. The victory effectively sealed the French conquest of Egypt and Napoleon entered Cairo after the battle to create a new local administration under his supervision. The battle highlighted the weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire in the face of a changing Europe. Napoleon named the battle after the Egyptian pyramids because they were faintly visible on the horizon, 15 km away, when the battle took place some 6 km from Cairo. Nevertheless Napoleon's position in Egypt was precarious, despite his wearing of Muslim dress, showing respect for the Sheikhs of al-Azhar, and renaming himself as Ali Bonaparte. Britain and the Ottoman government joined forces to defeat him and finally drove out the French in 1801.

186 solar years ago, on this day in 1831 AD, with installation of Leopold I as king, Belgium became a constitutional monarchy – a day now celebrated as National Day. In 1830, the Belgian Revolution had led to the separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic, officially French-speaking and neutral Belgium. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square km and has a population of about 11 million people.

145 lunar years ago, on this day in 1293 AH, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul-Mohammad Musavi, passed away. A child prodigy he memorized the holy Qur’an when only seven years old and at the age of 24 attained the status of Ijtehad – or independent reasoning on basis of the Holy Qur’an and Prophet's Hadith. He was one of the prominent lecturers and his services include establishment of seminaries and other social activities. He wrote several books, including the treatise titled "Zakhirat al-Ebaad".

129 solar years ago, on this day in 1888 AD, the English inventor, John Boyd Dunlop, invented pneumatic tyres. He had realized that inner-filled tyres reduce the speed of vehicles and therefore made a tyre which was filled with air. This type of tyre granted further speed and flexibility to vehicles. He died in the year 1921.

118 solar years ago, on this day in 1899 AD, American author, Ernest Hemingway was born. For a while, he worked as a reporter in England and France. He was the innovator of short stories in simple language. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Among his books, are “The Old Man and the Sea”, “A Farewell to Arms”, and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. He committed suicide in 1961.

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, massive rallies were staged in Tehran and other Iranian cities in response to a call by senior religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasim Kashani, in protest to the ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and appointment of the pro-British Ahmad Qavvam as premier by the Shah. Although the Pahlavi regime brutally suppressed the peaceful rallies, the Shah was forced to reinstate Mosaddeq as Premier. However, Mosaddeq's folly in alienating Ayatollah Kashani and the masses, resulted in his overthrow 13 months later by a US-designed coup on 19th August 1953 and the return of the fugitive Shah.

65 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, the International Court of Justice at Hague, ruled by a vote of 9 to 5 that it had no jurisdiction in the British-Iranian dispute over nationalization of Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroluem). The verdict ended Britain's bid to force Iran to stop oil nationalization. The decision was based on the majority finding that the 1933 oil concession was a simple contract rather than an international agreement and that Britain could not invoke previous treaties. Hussain Navaz, Iranian Minister to the Netherlands and the agent in the case, said the court's decision would strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, at a crucial moment in the Iranian political situation. London, however, continued to issue threats against Iran, and the next year ganged up with the US to overthrow the elected government of Prime Minister Mossadeq on August 19, in order to restore the fugitive Pahlavi Shah to the Peacock Throne in Tehran.

63 solar years ago, on this day in 1954 AD, an armistice treaty was signed between France and Vietnam at the end of Geneva Conference, which put an end to French colonial rule of Indochina. This treaty was concluded on May 1954, following the fall of the French Fortification in Vietnam, named “Dien Bien Phu”. At the International Geneva Conference, attended by France, the US, Britain, China, the USSR, and Vietnam, the division of Vietnam into North and South was included on American insistence. According to this treaty, foreign forces should have left Vietnam’s soil, but the US, in violation of the terms of the treaty, dispatched its troops to the region to confront the freedom-seeking people of Vietnam, and obstructed the unification of Northern and Southern Vietnam. The people of Vietnam, who had fought against the French colonial rule for a long time, this time confronted the US and defeated America after nearly two decades of war.  Northern and Southern Vietnam became once again united in a single country in 1975.

52 lunar years ago, on this day in 1386 AH, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hibat-od-Din Shahrestani, passed away at the age of 85 in Iraq. Born in Holy Karbala, he completed his higher studies at the famous seminary of Holy Najaf, and was active in both the religious and social spheres; writing books and personally taking part in the battles against the British occupiers of Iraq. He served Iraq as Head of the Judiciary, Minister of Islamic Affairs, and parliamentary representative. He strove for the unity of the Islamic world, and cooperated with the famous Egyptian activist, Sheikh Mohammad Abduh – the disciple of Iran’s Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi. Among the books written by him are a series of children’s books, the “Tafsir al-Mohit” exegesis of the holy Qur’an, the “Nahdhat-al-Hussaini” on the philosophy behind the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), and “Hikmat-al-Ahkam” on jurisprudential laws.

47 solar years ago, in 1970 AD, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 18 years of work. It is a huge rock-filled dam that lies just north of the border between Egypt and Sudan. It captures the world's longest river, the Nile, in the world's third largest reservoir, Lake Nasser. Built with Soviet aid at a cost of $1 billion, it now produces hydroelectricity meeting 50% of Egypt's power needs. It holds several years of irrigation reserves, assists multi-cropping, has increased productivity 20-50%, enormously increased Egypt's arable land, and overall, increased Egypt's agricultural income by 200%. The embankment is 111 meters high, with a width of near 1,000 meters. Lake Nasser is 480 long and up to 16 km wide.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1983 AD, the world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).

29 solar years ago, on this day in 1988 AD, four days after Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 to stop the Iraqi war, Saddam, who had earlier accepted this same resolution, violated its terms and clauses, by launching a fresh attack in southwestern Iran. Thanks to the readiness of the Muslim combatants, this fresh Ba’thist attack was defeated and it revealed the warmongering nature of Saddam, who had started the 8-year war in September 1980. Ceasefire finally ended the Iraqi War on August 20, 1988.

4 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, in Yemen armed terrorists seized an employee of the Iranian embassy in Sanaa. Diplomat Nour Ahmad Nikbakht was freed by Iranian special operatives in March, 2015.

AS/MG