Today is Thursday; 13th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 14th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1439 lunar hijri; and October 5, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1439 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.

1109 lunar years ago, on this day in 330 AH, the Iranian scholar, literary figure, and poet, Hussain ibn Hajjaj Baghdadi, was born. He wrote delicate poetry using attractive terms. Most of his poems are in praise of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt. His verses were compiled in book-form by his famous contemporary, the theologian and literary figure, Seyyed Razi, the compiler of the celebrated book “Nahj al-Balagha”, which is a selection of the sermons, letters and maxims of the Prophet's vicegerent, Imam Ali (AS).

803 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

792 solar years ago, on this day in 1225 AD, Naser-Billah, the 34^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died in Baghdad after a lengthy rule of 45 years during which he plotted and weakened the Iran-based Seljuq dynasty by instigating the Khwarezm Shah Ala ad-Din Tekish to attack and kill Toghrul III in 1194. When the Khwarezm Shah grew strong, this treacherous caliph invited the Buddhist marauder Chingiz Khan to attack the Khwarezm Shahi Empire. The result was the disastrous Mongol onslaught that devastated Muslim lands from Central Asia to the Levant, and in 1258 brought the curtain down on the Abbasid regime itself.

567 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).

435 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.

204 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.

175 lunar years ago, on this day in 1264 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar and narrator of Hadith, Seyyed Sadr od-Din Musawi Ameli, passed away in holy Najaf, Iraq at the age of 71, and was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Born in the Jabal Amel region of Lebanon, while still a child, he migrated to Iraq along with his father, because of persecution by the local Ottoman officials. After mastering theology, jurisprudence and Hadith, he visited Iran at the age of 32 for pilgrimage to holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad. He then stayed for a year in Qom for higher studies, before settling in Isfahan, where several of his children were born. In the waning years of his life, he returned to Iraq. He has left behind a comprehensive compilation on jurisprudence and its principles. He also has a book on grammar in which he has extensively quoted from the holy Qur'an. His sons and grandsons adopted “Sadr” as the family name, and many of them became prominent religious scholars in Iran and Iraq. Among his great-grandsons, mention could be made of Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Baqer as-Sadr who was martyred by Saddam, and Imam Seyyed Musa Sadr, who migrated to Lebanon from Iran and was treacherously martyred in Libya by Mo’ammar Qadhafi,

153 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.

153 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.

115 lunar years ago, on this day in 1324 AH, the jurisprudent and exegete of the holy Qur’an, Seyyed Abu’l-Qassim Razavi Lahori bin Seyyed Hassan, passed away in Lahore and was laid to rest in this city which is capital of Pakistan’s Punjab State. Born in Kashmir, he was one of the prominent scholars of the undivided Subcontinent and authored several books including “Burhan Shaqq al-Qamar”  which provides us factual and rational proofs of the miracle in making the moon split at an indication of his finger by the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

102 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.

69 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.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, The Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), after 11 months in the Turkish city of Bursa, following his exile from Iran by the British-installed and US-supported Pahlavi regime, left for Iraq. He first arrived in Samarra to a warm welcome by the Iraqi people and paid his respects at the holy shrines of Imam Ali Naqi (AS) and Imam Hasan Askari (AS) – the 10^th and 11^th Infallible Heirs of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He then went to holy Karbala, to a grand welcome from the ulema and the people, and after a week’s stay and pilgrimage to the holy shrine of the Chief of Martyrs, Imam Husain (AS), he left for his rendezvous, holy Najaf. The next 14 years, he lived in the proximity of the blessed shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), providing guidelines to the people of Iran for the eventual victory of the Islamic Revolution. On February 2, after a 4-month stay near Paris on a visit visa to France, he returned to Iran on February 1, 1979, and was welcomed home by millions of people. 

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), left Iraq for Paris on a visit visa, following the refusal of the Kuwaiti authorities to allow him entry despite his holding of valid visa. Both the repressive Ba'th minority regime of Baghdad and Kuwait were under pressure from the despotic regime of the Shah to prevent the Imam from carrying out his revolutionary activities. His arrival in Paris proved a blessing in disguise as the world media became more easily accessible to him and his declarations. Less than four months later, the Imam arrived in Tehran after 14 years in exile, to a grand unprecedented welcome to mark the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the end of the Pahlavi regime.

35 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

17 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.

10 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.

6 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.

6 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/SS