Today is Thursday; 28th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 28th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1436 lunar hijri; and March 19, 2015, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1780 solar years ago, on this day in 235 AD, Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, who suffered a series of disastrous defeats in the Levant and Armenia at the hands of the rising power of the Sassanid Dynasty of Iran, was assassinated, along with his mother Julia Mamaea, by legionaries near modern Mainz in Europe.  
1153 lunar years ago, on this day in 283 AH, the acclaimed Arabic poet, Ali ibn al-Abbas ibn Jurayj, known popularly as Ibn ar-Roumi, passed away at the age of 62. Born in Baghdad, he was the son of an Iranian mother and a half-Roman Muslim father, which explains his surname Ibn Roumi. By the age of twenty he earned a living through his poetry which would culminate in his masterpiece Diwan. His political patrons included the Taherid ruler of Khorasan, Obaydallah ibn Abdullah, the Abbasid Caliph’s Persian minister, Ismail ibn Bulbul, and the politically influential Nestorian family of Banu Wahd. He was a Shi’ite Muslim. He died of illness, although some have suggested that poison may have been the cause.
736 solar years ago, on this day in 1279 AD, a Mongolian victory at the Battle of Yamen ended the Song Dynasty in China, and established the Yuan Dynasty that lasted till 1368. Its greatest ruler was Kublai Khan, a grandson of the fearsome Mongol marauder Chengiz Khan.
609 solar years ago, on this day in 1406 AD, the Muslim historian and historiographer, Abdur-Rahman ibn Mohammad Ibn Khaldun, passed away in Cairo at the age of 74. Born in Tunis into an affluent Spanish Arab family that had settled in North Africa because of Christian onslaughts, he is regarded as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology, and economics. He travelled widely around Egypt, North Africa and Spain, where the Muslim ruler of the emirate of Granada sent him on a mission to the Christian King of Castile, Pedro the Cruel. He returned to Egypt, whose Mamluk sultan sent him to negotiate with the fearsome Turkic conqueror, Amir Timur, during the siege of Damascus. In his autobiography, Ibn Khaldun has mentioned his discussions with Timur, who asked him in detail about North Africa and Spain. Among his many works is a voluminous universal history, but his fame rests on the detailed "Muqaddemah” or Introduction, which is considered a unique work in itself.
366 solar years ago, on this day in 1649 AD, the prominent Hanafi jurist of Syria, Abdul-Ghani al-Nabulsi, was born in Damascus. A prolific writer who wrote several books, he was a member of both the Qaderiyya and Naqshbandi Sufi orders. Once, after visiting the shrine of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA) on the outskirts of Damascus, he expressed doubts on whether this was actually the holy site at which the Heroine of Karbala had been laid to rest. No sooner did he leave the place he fell from his mount and broke his leg. He realized his error and in that very condition of pain he dragged himself towards the blessed tomb in a state of repentance with the following rhymed phrases on his lips:
      "Zainab bint Haider, ma’dan al-‘ilm wa’l-huda,
      ‘Indaha Bab Hitta, fa adkhulu al-baab sujjada.
      "(Zainab the daughter of Haider, the Mine of Knowledge and Guidance,
       Her threshold is Door of Repentance, so enter it [head bowed] in prostration.)”
At that very moment Shaikh Abdul-Ghani Nabulsi felt his broken leg miraculously cured and he stood up relieved of pain as if nothing had happened to him. Among his books is "Shifa as-Sadr fî Fadha’il Laylat-an-Nisf min Sha’ban wa Laylat-al-Qadr” (Curing the heart on the Virtues of the Night of 15th Sha’ban and the Night of Qadr). He passed away at the ripe age of 90 and was buried in Damascus.  
276 solar years ago, on this day in 1739 AD, the defeated, captured, and subsequently released Moghal Emperor, Mohammad Shah, entered Delhi, followed the next day by the victor of the Battle of Karnal, Iran’s Nader Shah Afshar. A few days later an insurrection broke out in the city and led to the killing of several Iranian soldiers by miscreants, prompting Nader Shah to order a bloody massacre that was stopped when the sagacious Moghal Vizier, Qamar od-Din Khan Nizam ul-Mulk Asef Jah (founder of the Asef Jahi Dynasty of Haiderabad-Deccan) intervened and urged the Iranian monarch to stop the senseless bloodletting. Nader Shah returned to Iran with considerable booty including the famous Peacock Throne, the Koh-e Noor Diamond and the Tent of Pearls.
210 lunar years ago, on this day in 1226 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Mullah Ali Mirza Khalili, was born. He honed his skills in theology, jurisprudence, and mathematics, and spent his life on research, study, and writing of books. His works include "Khaza’in al-Ahkam”. He passed away in 1297 at the age of 71.
132 solar years ago, on this day in 1883 AD, the English chemist, Norman Haworth, was born. He conducted extensive scientific research about hydrocarbons and succeeded in presentation of a new design for the molecular structure of sugar, which was named after him. He conducted major studies on Vitamin C, whose molecular structure is similar to sugar, and prepared its industrial type, naming it Ascorbic Acid. Due to these studies and discoveries, he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937. He passed away in the year 1950.
117 lunar years ago, on this day in 1319 AH, the great Islamic scholar, Allamah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Ashtiani Tehrani, passed away. He authored a number of books on various Islamic sciences, and published the lectures and thoughts of the celebrated scholar, Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. He, along with other combatant and courageous ulema, opposed monopolization of tobacco trade, which was granted to a British company by the Qajarid King, Nasser od-Din Shah. Allamah Ashtiani was a firm believer that no falsehood can approach the holy Qur’an. He says in his book "Bahr al-Fawa’ed” that "all leading Mujtahideen and Usoolieen widely believe that the Holy Qur’an has not been distorted. In fact, many have even cited a consensus of opinion or ijma’ in this regard, and there is in particular a complete consensus of opinion that no additions have been made to the Qur’an. Thus, the narrations that point to deletions being made to the Qur’an contain weak chains.” He also wrote the valuable book "Mabahes al-Alfaaz”.
115 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, the French physicist and chemist, Frederic Joliot, was born in Paris. Following the completion of his academic studies, he worked as the assistant of the physicist and discoverer of radium, Marie Curie. He married to Marie Curie’s daughter Irene, and with the assistance of his wife managed to find out the makeup of the new radioactive materials.
71 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, Palestinian Christian activist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who in a revolutionary style execution shot dead US presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, in Los Angeles, was born in Bayt al-Moqaddas. A staunch opponent of the illegal Zionist entity, he had decided to shoot Kennedy for pledging to send 50 advanced bombers to the illegal entity called Israel, in order to further terrorize and kill Palestinians, on becoming president. Sirhan had moved to the US after a life in refugee camps on usurpation of his homeland by illegal Zionist migrants from Europe. He is serving a life sentence in the US, and his supporters defend his killing of Kennedy as a justified act in support of his occupied homeland.
28 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, the last member of the generation of modern physics founders, Louis de Broglie, died at the age of 95. He catapulted to fame with presentation of the theory about the particle-wave nature of light. With the presentation of this theory, major accomplishments were made in the science of physics. He managed to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in the year 1929.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)