Today is Friday; 17th of the Iranian month of Azar 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1439 lunar hijri; and December 8, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2082 solar years ago, on this day in 65 BC, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Roman poet and satirist, known as Horace, was born. He is best known for his three books “Odes”. Recently, Iranian scholar Mir Jalal od-Din Kazzazi has rendered into Persian an anthology of Horace’s Odes, most of which have historical and epic backgrounds and composed in a sensational language especially when describing events like Julius Caesar’s battles.

1260 solar years ago, on this day in 757 AD, the renowned Chinese poet, Du Fu, returned to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion. A prominent figure of the Tang era, along with Li Bai, he is considered as the greatest of Chinese poets. His ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years, before his death in 770 at the age of 58, were a time of almost constant unrest, with the country devastated by wars and famines, which killed two-thirds of the population of China. His works greatly influenced both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Hugo or Baudelaire. Du Fu's writings are considered by many literary critics to be among the greatest of all time in Chinese literature, and his dense, compressed language makes use of all the connotative overtones of a phrase and of all the international potentials of the individual word, qualities that no translation can ever reveal. A variety of styles have been used in efforts to translate his work into English.

996 solar years ago, on this day in 1021 AD, Wang Anshi, Chinese economist, statesman, chancellor and poet of the Song Dynasty who attempted major and controversial socioeconomic reforms known as the New Policies, was born. These reforms constituted the core concepts of the Song-Dynasty Reformists. Wang Anshi's ideas are usually analyzed in terms of the influence the Rites of Zhou or Legalism had on him. His economic reforms included increase currency circulation, breaking up of private monopolies, and early forms of government regulation and social welfare. His military reforms expanded the use of local militias and his government reforms expanded the civil service examination system and attempted to suppress nepotism in government. Although successful for a while, he eventually fell out of favour of the emperor. Chinese politicians and historians have continued to look back on the reforms of Wang Anshi as either principled and measured or misguided and disastrous.

149 solar years ago, on this day in 1868 AD, the Shogun warlords fell from power in Japan and thereafter social, political, and cultural reforms began. The Shoguns were a very powerful clique that first came into prominence in the 12th century. In later centuries they monopolized power and completely overshadowed the royal court. In 1867, with the coming to power of Emperor Mutsuhito, the Shoguns lost power and were totally crushed the next year.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1903 AD, the English philosopher and thinker, Herbert Spencer, died at the age of 83. He believed that science should be learned via observation and experiment. He admitted that mankind’s mind is limited, but he denied realities such as soul. Some of his works are namely: “Principles of Sociology”, “Principles of Biology”, and “Principles of Psychology”.

103 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, the Falkland naval battle broke out between Britain and Germany off the southern tip of South America in the Atlantic Ocean, in the vicinity of Argentina. The Germans were defeated and the Islands again occupied by Britain. These oil-rich islands, called Malvinas by Argentina, are the source of dispute with Britain. Buenos Aires claims that it is part of Argentine territory and went to an unsuccessful war with Britain over them in 1982.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, the prominent Urdu poet of the Subcontinent, Seyyed Nasser Reza Kazemi was born at Ambala, Haryana. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he came to Lahore and did some journalistic work with “Auraq-e Nau” and became editor-in-chief of the magazine “Humayun” in 1952. Later he was associated with Radio Pakistan, and other literary publications and organisations. He wrote several books and composed a great number of ghazals and other forms of poetry. He did translations of some English poets, especially his translation of Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" under the Urdu title "Brooklyn Ghaat Ke Paar", which is considered a masterpiece. He died in 1972.

81 lunar years ago, on this day in 1358 AH, the Source of Emulation, Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Aliyari, passed away at the age of 92. Born in a village near Tabriz, after learning jurisprudence, mathematics, and other sciences under his father, he left for Iraq to study at the famous Najaf Seminary under prominent scholars as Ayatollah Mirza Abu'l-Qasem Haeri, and Ayatollah Fazel Sharabiani. He authored several books such as “Sirat an-Najah”, and “Jame’ as-Sa’adah”.

76 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, during World War II, a day after 200 Japanese warplanes bombarded the US military base in Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean, destroying 19 US warships, Japanese troops invaded Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Indonesia, thereby expanding the theatre of war in the east.

68 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the leader of Chinese nationalists, Chiang Kai-Shek, fled to Taiwan Island, after suffering defeat at the hands of communist party forces led by Mao Tse-Tung, who formed the new government of the People's Republic of China. The US seized the opportunity to meddle into Chinese affairs by supporting the separation of Taiwan from China and by handing the seat of China at the UN to breakaway Taiwan. However, in 1971, following US-China rapprochement, the UN General Assembly unanimously recognized the People’s Republic of China and admitted it to the UN Security Council as the fifth permanent member.

66 lunar years ago, on this day in 1373 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar, Ayatollah Seyyed Sadr od-Din as-Sadr, passed away at the age of 74 in holy Qom. Born in the holy city of Kazemain in Iraq to Ayatollah Ismael as-Sadr, after mastering Arabic literature and mathematics he attended the Najaf Seminary for higher studies, and soon attained the status of Ijtehad. At the age of 32 years he took up residence in the holy city of Mashhad, in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, and stayed for some 17 years. He was invited to holy Qom by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha'eri, whom he succeeded as head of the Qom Seminary. He was an accomplished poet in Arabic, and composed a moving elegy in Arabic on the desecration of the Baqie Cemetery by Wahhabi vandals. Among his valuable compilations, mention could be made of “Mukhtasar Tarikh al-Islam” (or A Concise History of Islam). Sadr od-Din Sadr was survived by his famous son, Seyyed (Imam) Musa Sadr, who later migrated to Lebanon and took over leadership of the Shi’a Muslims of that country, solidifying their ranks, and uplifting their socio-economic-political status, before he disappeared in Libya in 1978 while on an official visit to Tripoli at the invitation of Mo’ammar Qadhafi, who had him treacherously imprisoned and martyred.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, in Tehran, leaders of the 55-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) gathered for a summit meeting to promote Islamic solidarity. It was the first time that the Islamic Republic hosted the OIC Summit and took over chairmanship of this organization for the next four years.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 1999 AD, Iranian journalist, researcher, politician, and historian, Hussain Makki, passed away at the age of 88. He started his career as a journalist and researcher, and soon entered politics by being elected to the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th rounds of the constitutional parliament. A staunch supporter of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, he opposed British hegemony and the despotism of the Pahlavi regime. As a result he was sidelined by the regime in the aftermath of the 1953 coup. He wrote extensively, and as an eyewitness involved in political activities, he was an authority on the late Qajar and Pahlavi periods. His works include the 9-volume contemporary account titled “Twenty-Year History of Iran”, the 2-volume “Life of Ayatollah Modarres”, the 7-volume “Black Book” and two volumes of “Political Memoirs”.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2009 AD, in Iraq a series of coordinated attacks by US-nurtured terrorists, struck Baghdad, including two supposedly suicide car bombers and another vehicle that blew up near government sites. At least 127 were martyred and over 500 wounded in one of the worst wave of violence in the capital against the country’s long oppressed Shi’a Muslim majority.

AS/ME