Today is Sunday; 29th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 9th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1437 lunar hijri; and April 17, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1272 solar years ago, on this day in 744 AD, Waleed II, the 11th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, was killed after a reign of a year and two-and-a-half months, because of his immoral habits. On assuming power he had ordered his forces in Khorasan to harass the Prophet’s venerable descendant, Yahya Ibn Zayd Ibn Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS). Yahya was martyred in a battle in Jowzajan, which is presently in Afghanistan, and his severed head was sent to Damascus, where it is believed to be buried in the Omayyad Mosque in the spot which is mistakenly known today as the tomb of Prophet Yayha (John the Baptist). He built in his palace a fountain of wine in which he used to take dips. On one occasion he threw the holy Qur’an and riddled it with a volley of arrows. Once, in the state of intoxication and in the act of cohabiting with a drunken concubine, when he heard the call for the Fajr Prayer, he promptly asked the ritually unclean woman to put on his clothes, enter the mosque, and lead the Morning Prayer. In a famous hadith, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) had foretold about this ungodly Omayyad ruler by name, and called him the Pharaoh of the ummah. Eventually Waleed II was besieged in al-Aghdaf in what is now Jordan and killed by his own forces.

667 solar years ago, on this day in 1349 AD, with the murder of Fakhr od-Dowla Hassan II, the Bavand dynasty of Mazandaran came to its end, and Kiya Afrasiyab, who had defeated the Bavandid army and crowned himself the first ruler of the new Afrasiyabi dynasty – which ended 155 years later in 1504 with the annexation of Mazandaran by Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Empire.

619 solar years ago, on this day in 1397 AD, Geoffrey Chaucer of England recited for the first time his magnum opus “The Canterbury Tales” at the court of King Richard II, in the colloquial language of the ordinary English masses, rather than the church language Latin or the court language French, thus paving the way for emergence of English as the official language of the people of England.

516 lunar years ago, on this day in 921 AH, the Iranian historian and poet, Zain ol-Abedin Ali bin Abdul-Momin, popular as Abdi Bek Navidi Shirazi, was born in Shiraz. His main book is a history of the Safavid Dynasty titled "Takmilat al-Akhbar", in which he has chronicled events beginning from the emergence of the Safavids till the year 978 AH. His main poetical works are three Khamsas, composed in imitation of the celebrated Nizami Ganjavi. Each Khamsa comprises five independent versified narratives. Of these, “Sahifat-al-Ikhlas”, mostly a descriptive account of the palaces, gardens, and artists of Qazvin (the then capital of the Safavids) is of special interest. His Divan of Persian poetry was published for the first time in Lucknow, India, in 1267 AH (1851). Among his other works, mention could be made of a versified book titled “Jam-e Jamshid”.

511 lunar years ago, on this day in 930 AH, the young 10-year old Shah Tahmasp I was crowned as the second Safavid Emperor of Iran, a week after the death of his father and founder of the Dynasty, Shah Ismael I. His reign of 54-years is the longest of any Muslim king of Iran, and was marked by foreign threats, primarily from the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks in the northeast. Upon adulthood, he was able to reassert his power and consolidate the dynasty against internal and external enemies. Although he lost Iraq and parts of Anatolia to the Ottoman invaders, his pious nature made him avoid unnecessary shedding of Muslim blood. As a result, after thwarting Ottoman designs in the Caucasus, Shah Tahmasp concluded the Treaty of Amasya, with Sultan Sulaiman, resulting in a peace that lasted 30 years and led to the development of Iran. He continued his father’s policy of enlightening the people with the teachings of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt, and assembled at his court in Qazvin leading ulema from all over Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon. As a descendant of the Prophet and head of the Safavid spiritual order tracing to Safi od-Din Ardebili, he was acknowledged as suzerain by the Shi’ite Muslim sultanates of the Deccan (or Southern India). Shah Tahmasp is also known for the reception he gave to the fugitive Mughal Emperor Humayun of Hindustan (or Northern Subcontinent) when the latter fled the seizure of power by the Afghan warlord, Sher Shah Suri. Humayun, whose father Babar, was a protégé of Shah Ismail Safavi, was treated as a royal guest, and besides military aid to recover his kingdom, was accompanied by a large retinue of Iranian noblemen, soldiers, and artists, which signaled an important development in Indo-Iranian relations, in all fields, such as art, architecture, language and literature. One of Shah Tahmasp's more lasting achievements was his encouragement of the Persian carpet industry on a national scale. He was an enthusiastic patron of the arts with a particular interest in the Persian miniature, especially book illustration. He had been trained in drawing himself, and had some talent. The most famous example of such work is the “Shahnama-e Shah Tahmaspi”, containing 250 miniatures by the leading court artists of the era.

474 lunar years ago, on this day in 963 AH, Ezzeddin Seyyed Hussein, the prominent Imami scholar, was martyred through poisoning at the age of 57 in the city of Sidon in what is now Lebanon. Born in the Jabal Amel region, he mastered the sciences of the day, and had attained higher degrees of Gnosticism.

226 solar years ago, on this day in 1790 AD, US politician, inventor, diplomat, and printer, Benjamin Franklin, died at the age of 84. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America that was set up by the 13 rebellious New England colonies, he was born in Boston to British parents. He became widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories. He invented the lightning rod, and a type of stove – still being manufactured – to give more warmth than open fireplaces. Bifocal eyeglasses were his ideas as well. When the colonies rebelled against the British crown, he became an ardent supporter of independence, served as diplomat both at home and in Europe, and was regarded as second only to President George Washington in power and prestige. Franklin emphasized that the US could survive only if the people were virtuous, followed religious rules in both personal and civic life, and abstained from corruption, oppression, violence, and immoralities – all of which are dragging the US today towards its eventual doom.

136 solar years ago, on this day in 1880 AD, British archeologist of Mesopotamia, Charles Leonard Woolley, was born. His excavations during 1922-to-1934 of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in modern Iraq and the burial sites, greatly advanced knowledge of the ancient Mesopotamian civilization, enabling scholars to trace the history of the city from its final days during the 4th century BC back to its prehistoric beginnings (around 4000 BC). His finds revealed much about everyday life, art, architecture, literature, government, and religion in the cradle of civilization. In royal tombs dating from about 2700 BC, he uncovered the practice of the sacrificial burial of a deceased king's personal retinue. He discovered tombs of great material wealth, gold and silver jewelry, large paintings of ancient Mesopotamian culture at its zenith, and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb of Queen Pu-Abi was untouched by the hands of looters through the millennia, with many well-preserved items, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian. His widely read book titled “Ur of the Chaldees” is a record of seven years of excavation, described his findings in a manner both informative to specialists and accessible by lay-persons.

129 lunar years ago, on this day in 1308 AH, the prominent source of emulation, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Hassan Aal-e Yasin, passed away at the age of 88 in his hometown, Kazemayn, where he was head of the seminary. He studied in the seminary of holy Najaf under such famous scholars, as Shaikh Mohammad Hassan Najafi – author of “Jawaher al-Kalaam” – and became Marja’ after the passing away of the celebrated Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. Despite mastery over various branches of Islamic sciences, he wrote mainly on jurisprudence. His works include “Asraar-al-Faqaha”.

121 solar years ago, on this day in 1895 AD, Japan forced upon China the Treaty of Shimonoseki, marking the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and compelling the defeated Qing Empire to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan. Japan’s arrogantly imperialist attitude towards China and Korea led to destructive wars and massive killing of people.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, chemical gases were used for the first time in a war. In this inhuman measure, which took place during World War I, German forces attacked British and French forces with chemical gas, killing a large number of them. Following the end of World War I, the use of chemical weapons was banned as per international treaties, but this did not prevent the US to use chemicals against the Vietnamese in the 1960s and 1970s. The US, along with Germany, also supplied internationally-banned chemical weapons to Saddam for use against Iran during the 1980-88 imposed war. In addition to martyring and maiming a large number of Iranian civilians and combatants, while the UN and the West turned a blind eye to his crimes, Saddam also used chemical weapons on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabche massacring over 5,000 men, women, and children, and maiming more than 10,000 others, for welcoming the Iranian combatants as liberators from Ba’thist rule.

70 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, the last French troops left Syria following formal recognition of its independence earlier in the year. Bilaad ash-Shaam or Greater Syria, which for four centuries had been occupied by the Ottoman Turks, was seized by the Allied powers of Britain and France in 1917 during World War I. The victors divided Syria between them, with the British creating Jordan and Palestine, and the French creating present-day Syria and Lebanon. Following independence from colonial rule, Syria went through instability for 24 years with frequent coups, counter-coups and overthrow of military and civilian governments that saw the rise and fall of more than a dozen regimes. The situation was stabilized and progress became possible, only with the coming to power in 1970 of President Hafez al-Assad, who during his 30-year rule made Syria a strong bulwark of resistance against the designs of the West and the illegal Zionist entity. He was succeeded in 2000 by his son, Dr. Bashshar al-Assad, who for the past 16 years has ably led the country, although at present he is facing an insurrection and state-sponsored terrorism incited by the US, Britain, France, Israel, Turkey and Arab reactionary states, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, following failure of their diversionary landing near Baracoa, Oriente Province, over 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban anti-revolutionaries, launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Cuban forces killed 200 rebels and captured 1,197 in less than 72 hours. The command vessel Marsopa and supply ship Houston were sunk and an entire battalion was lost. A single copy of a CIA report written by inspector general Lyman Kirkpatrick was made public in 1998. The operation, which had been devised during the Eisenhower Administration, was nonetheless endorsed by the new president, John F. Kennedy.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the US-backed Lon Nol regime of Cambodia surrendered to the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodia). Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, occupied the capital Phnom Penh ending Cambodia's five-year war. He renamed the country “Democratic Kampuchea”, thus beginning his brutal rule that resulted in the death of some three million people or approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population, through executions, forced labour, malnutrition and poor medical care.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the Iranian Army, cheered by the masses, staged glorious parades in different regions of Iran, swearing allegiance to the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), and emphasizing its loyalty to the Islamic Republic System. This day is thus named “Army Day” in the Islamic Republic of Iran and every year especial ceremonies are held on this day.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2004 AD, Palestinian activist and Leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Dr. Abdul-Aziz Rantisi, was martyred when the car carrying him was targeted with missiles by Zionist choppers. Born in Palestine in 1947, he graduated in medicine from Egypt’s Alexandria University in 1967, and joined the struggle against the usurper state of Israel. He was imprisoned, tortured and exiled to “no man’s land” on the frontier of Occupied Palestine with southern Lebanon, where the contact of Rantisi and his group with members of the legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, positively changed their outlook, and infused new spirit into Hamas.