Today is Monday; 16th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 25th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1437 lunar hijri; and April 4, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1048 solar years ago, on this day in 968 AD, the famous Arabic poet, statesman, and warrior, Harres bin Sa’eed, known as Abu Firas al-Hamdani, was killed in a battle in Sadad, 60 km south of Homs in Syria at the age of 36. He was a cousin and brother-in-law of the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo and northern Syria, Sayf od-Dowlah, and was one of commanders in the campaigns against the Byzantine Empire. Like the rest of the Hamdanids, he was a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt, and wrote his odes describing the injustices committed by the caliphs against the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The reputation of Abu Firas owes much to his personal qualities. Handsome in person, of noble family, brave, generous, and extolled by his contemporaries as “excelling in every virtue”, he lived up to the Islamic Arab ideal of chivalry which he expressed in his poetry. His poems are popular till this day, especially the “ar-Roumiyaat”, written during his 4-year captivity by the Byzantines or eastern Romans before he was freed through ransom. His diwan was edited with a commentary (largely from the poet himself) shortly after his death by his tutor, the famous Iranian grammarian of Arabic language, Ibn Khalawaiyh, who lived in Syria at the Hamdanid court.

732 solar years ago, on this day in 1284 AD, Alfonso X of Castile died at the age of 63. Born in the occupied Islamic city of Toledo in Spain, he had succeeded his father, Ferdinand III, to the throne in 1252. During his 32-year rule, although he was successful against Portugal, and managed to occupy the Muslim regions of Murcia and Cadiz, he suffered shattering defeats at the hands of Spanish Muslims when he tried to invade the Nasrid emirate of Granada. Twice his armies were defeated, especially in the Battle of Ecija in 1275, and he lost his sons in battle. The important work undertaken by him was the study and translation of Arabic scientific books into the Castilian and Latin languages, in order to acquire knowledge from Muslims and break out from the dark ages into which the Christian Church had plunged Europe.

728 lunar years ago, on this day in 709 AH, Ahmad ibn Mohammad Ibn Ataollah al-Iskandari, the third sheikh of the Shadhili Sufi Order, passed away in Cairo. He was from Alexandria and systematized the Order's doctrines by recording the biographies of its founder, Sidi Abu’l-Hassan ash-Shadhili, and his successor, Sidi Abu’l-Abbas al-Mursi. Ibn Ataollah authored a treatise on “dhikr”, titled “Miftah al-Falah” (or The Key to Salvation), which is a Sufi manual of invocation. His compilation of aphorisms helped to make the group very popular. The wide circulation of his written works led to spread of the Shadhili order in North Africa.

399 solar years ago, on this day in 1617 AD, Scottish mathematician and occultist writer, John Napier, who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical device to aid in calculations, died at the age of 67.

128 lunar years ago, on this day in 1309 AH, the tobacco concession to the British by Nasser od-Din Shah Qajar had to be cancelled, following the Iranian nation’s support for the fatwa issued from the holy city of Samarra in Iraq – after due warnings – by Ayatollah Mirza Hassan Shirazi against tobacco consumption, since it was ruining Iran’s economy. He gave the verdict: Tobacco consumption is tantamount to war against the Imam of the Age (God hasten his reappearance). Even the wife of the Shah broke the pipes and forbade tobacco in the royal palace.

111 solar years ago, on this day in 1905 AD, a severe 7.8 degree earthquake devastated the Kangra Valley in what is now Himachal Pradesh States in northern India, killing 20,000 people and destroying as many as 100,000 buildings in Kangra, McLeod-Ganj and Dharamshala. Some 53,000 domestic animals were also lost. There was also major damage to the network of hillside aqueducts that fed water to the affected area.

97 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the Portuguese boy, Francisco Marto, who along with two other rural children had claimed to have seen the apparition of a ‘Radiantly Virtuous Veiled Lady’ with a rosary in her hand outside the village of Fatima in Portugal, reportedly died at the age of 11. The apparition is known as "Our Lady of Fatima" and "Our Lady of the Rosary". Francisco, his sister Jacinta and cousin, Lucia Santos, spoke of seeing a lady "more radiant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the rays of the sun." The three were jailed by the local Christian authorities of the Catholic sect and threatened with painful death. They were reportedly released, although it cannot be confirmed whether or not they were the same children. Within a year of Francisco’s death, his sister Jacinta also died, while Lucia Santos was confined to convents as a nun until she died in 2005 at the age of 97. The Vatican acted as her spokesman by releasing what it called the "Three Secrets of Fatima", though scholars suspect deliberate distortion of the whole event, and what was actually predicted or told to the children. First and foremost, nowhere in Christian texts has the Virgin Mary been ever called Fatima, or was associated with the rosary. As researchers point out, the name of the town in Portugal, "Fatima" is Arabic, and it was founded by the Muslim rulers of the Iberian Peninsula. The name "Fatema" is popular and venerated among Muslims because of it being the name of the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), who is also called "az-Zahra" (the Most Radiant). Another interesting fact that scholars note is the association of the Prophet's daughter with the rosary or prayer beads, which she first made out of clay, and which subsequently became famous as "Tasbih Fatema" when her father taught her the glorification of the Lord Most High on the prayer beads. Hence Hazrat Fatema is known as the Lady of the Rosary. The most important factor to note is that in 1571 AD, Pope Pius V held a feast of what he called "Our Lady of Victory" in honour of the Virgin Mary, after the Christians had managed to hold back Turkish Muslim armies from overrunning Western Europe; but in the subsequent years, following fresh Turkish victories, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the feast to "Our Lady of Rosary" since victory was not possible against the Turks. It is not known what prompted the Pope to associate the word Rosary with Mary, or whether it was part of the Catholic propaganda to counter the trend among the growing number of Muslims in southeastern Europe to recite the Rosary of Hazrat Fatema (SA). Thus, the most likely answer for the apparition that the three children saw was of the Prophet's daughter – perhaps prophesying the conversion of Europe to Islam.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD during World War II, the first bombardment of the Hungarian capital Bucharest by Anglo-American forces killed over 3000 civilians and destroyed the infrastructure of the city. On the pretext of targeting German forces, the British and the Americans savagely killed unguarded Hungarian men, women and children, is their blatant crime against humanity.

71 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD during World War II, the Soviet Army took control of Hungary from the retreating German Nazi forces, thereby saving the people from a possible general massacre by the Allied forces of the Americans and the British. In 1947, Hungary, under Moscow’s influence, opted for the communist system of government, which lasted till 1989 when socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe.

67 solar years ago, on this day in 1949 AD, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed by member states of the Treaty of Brussels i.e. Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Holland, and Britain, along with Italy, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada and the US, resulting in the setting up of the military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was the product of the Cold War era to check the spread of communism and Soviet influence in Europe and the West, and its charter stipulated that an attack on any member state would be treated as an attack on all, thereby warranting collective military action. Later, after the USSR and its East European Allies –East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia – set up the Warsaw Pact in response to the West’s military threat, West Germany, Greece, Turkey and Spain joined NATO. In 1960, US domineering policies had made France briefly pull out its forces from the NATO Command Unit. With the collapse of the East European socialist republics in 1989 and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, which meant NATO had no justification to exist. However, in violation of all international goodwill norms, NATO has not only expanded to include new members in its east as part of its expansion towards the borders of Russia, but has illegally been involved in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, the bombing of Kosovo and the overthrow of Libya’s Mo'ammar Qadhafi regime.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1960 AD, France agreed to grant independence to the Mali Federation, formed on this date a year before as a union of Senegal and the French Sudan, which is now the Republic of Mali. The two countries, along with other West African lands were part of the Muslim Empire of Mali, which was gradually encroached upon by invaders from Europe, starting with the Portuguese and ending in 19th century with the French who looted the natural and human resources of this area. With the weakening of France during World War II, independence was finally granted on June 20, 1960. Shortly afterwards on 20 August 1960, the federation collapsed, when Senegal withdrew. Landlocked Mali and Senegal – which has a large coastline on the Atlantic Ocean – are two separate independent sovereign states in West Africa, and both predominantly Muslim.

48 solar years ago, on this day in 1968 AD, the Afro-American leader of the movement against racial discrimination, Martin Luther King, was assassinated by a gunman at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, exactly a year after he delivered his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church. He was 39 years old and was deeply resented by the White supremacists including the government of the US. A certain James Earl Ray was framed up as King's assassin and sentenced to 99 years in jail, but soon died mysteriously in prison, thereby closing the case. According to evidence, the notorious US spying agency, CIA, was involved in his murder. He led numerous demonstrations against racial discrimination and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless efforts to fulfill the rights of Afro-Americans.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, former President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, was executed by coup leader and self-styled president, General Zia ul-Haq, who ironically had been promoted as chief of staff of the armed forces over several senior officers by Bhutto himself. Zia soon turned against his benefactor and ousted him in a coup in 1977. He accused Bhutto of murder and hanged him after trial in a kangaroo court. Zia was an American agent and inflicted irreparable harm on Pakistan through his pro-Saudi Arabia policies that led to the emergence of Salafi terrorist groups, who have wrecked the harmony and stability of the country. Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who was a member of reputed Sindhi family of undivided India, was the founder of Pakistan People’s Party and was elected president in 1971, following the war with India that saw East Pakistan secede as the new country of Bangladesh.

35 solar years ago, on this day in 1981 AD, The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, in a heroic operation, attacked the H-3 Airbase and destroyed over 50 Iraqi aircraft during the 8-year war imposed by Saddam on the orders of the US.

23 lunar years ago, on this day in 1415 AH, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Araki passed away in holy Qom at the age of 103. A student of the Reviver of the Qom Seminary, Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha’eri, he taught for 35 years, and for 30 years led the daily prayer at the Faiziyeh Theological School. He was among the teachers of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (God bless him).