Today is Wednesday; 28th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1394 solar hijri; corresponding to 4th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Qa’dah 1436 lunar hijri; and August 19, 2015, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2001 solar years ago, on this day in 14 AD, the first Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar, died in Rome at the age of 77 after a long reign of 41 years, during which his greatest achievement was conclusion of a treaty with Emperor Farhad IV (Phraates IV) of Iran’s Parthian Empire that ensured peace in what are now Palestine, Syria, and Turkey; in addition to return of the Roman Eagle Standards lost by Crassus to the Iranians in the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. He was also aware of the disastrous defeats suffered by Mark Antony in his campaigns against Iranians. Named Gaius Octavius, he was the maternal grandson of the sister of Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, who in his will declared him his adopted son and heir. With Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, he formed a triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory, the triumvirate divided the Roman Republic and ruled as military dictators. The alliance torn apart under the ambitions of its members: Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, and Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Four years later, Octavius declared himself emperor, with the title "Augustus Caesar”, thus ending the Roman Republic. The 8th month of the Julian calendar, was renamed "August” in his honour. Prophet Jesus (AS) flourished in his reign.
872 solar years ago, on this day in 1153 AD, Baldwin III of the usurper Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem occupied the city of Ascalon (Asqalan in Arabic) in Palestine near Gaza, which was a strong bastion of Egypt’s Fatemid Shi’ite Muslim dynasty and a site of pilgrimage, since it had a mausoleum, believed to be the site of burial of the holy head of the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS). He marched with a huge army of Christian mercenaries from Europe and began to destroy the surrounding orchards in January.  For five months there were many skirmishes and victories and defeats on both sides. Ascalon was vast and virtually impenetrable; behind its massive walls and gates were determined defenders including Arabs, Iranians, and Berbers. Just when the Crusaders were tired and planning to leave, an accidental fire in one of the towers of Ascalon, made them stay. After bitter fighting the city surrendered, and the Fatemids took away to Cairo for reburial what they considered to be the head of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Half a century earlier in 1099, the Battle of Ascalon was fought outside the city during the First Crusade and the occupation of Bayt al-Moqaddas by the Crusaders. Although it led to the defeat of the Fatemids, the city’s defenders made of large contingents of Arabs, Iranians, and Berbers, ensured that it remained in Egyptian hands. The fall of Ascalon thus led to the downfall of the Fatemid Dynasty. Amalric succeeded his brother Baldwin as king of the usurper kingdom of Jerusalem in 1162, and led several expeditions from Ascalon into Egypt. The Kurdish adventurer, Salah od-Din Ayyubi, taking advantage of Crusader assaults, imposed himself in Cairo as Prime Minister, and then seized power himself. In 1187, he took Ascalon and in 1191, during the Third Crusade, he demolished the city because of its potential strategic importance to the Christians. It was again occupied by the Crusaders but retaken in 1247 by Egyptian Muslims. In 1270, Baybars, the Turkic Mamluk sultan of Egypt, ordered the citadel and harbour of Ascalon to be destroyed. Ascalon was rebuilt in the 16th century as an Arab town during Ottoman rule. In the British Mandate period over Palestine, it had a large edifice on top of a hill with a fragment of a pillar showing the place where the head of Imam Husain (AS) was supposedly buried. In 1948 Ascalon was seized by the illegal Zionist entity, its name changed to Ashkelon, and its Arab inhabitants driven away from their homes. In July 1950, the shrine was destroyed at the instructions of General Moshe Dayan in accordance with the Israeli policy of erasing all Muslim historical and religious sites.
780 lunar years ago, on this day in 656 AH, the famous Arabic poet, Baha od-Din Zuhayr Abu'l-Fazal Ibn Mohammad al-Muhallabi, died in Cairo at the age of 74. Born in Mecca, he travelled to Egypt where he became a poet at the court of the Ayyubid Kurdish dynasty, and finally became vizier of the ruler, Sultan as-Saleh. His Diwan was translated into English in two volumes by E.H. Palmer in 1876-77.
755 lunar years ago, on this day in 681 AH, the Iranian historian Ata-Malik Jowaini, passed away at the age of 58 in Azarbaijan. He belonged to a prominent scholarly and political family of Jowain in Khorasan that were followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. His brother, father, and grandfather held important posts in the Ilkhanid Empire of Iran-Iraq. He too became an important official and twice visited the main Mongol capital of Karakorum in Central Asia. He accompanied Hulagu Khan during the sack of Baghdad and the next year was appointed governor of Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia, and Khuzestan. His famous history is titled "Tarikh-e Jahan-Gusha”.  It was translated into English by John Andrew Boyle under the title: "The History of the World-Conqueror” and the 2nd edition published in 1997. It should be noted that his brother, Shams od-Din Mohammad, who had been Sahib-e Divan (or Finance Minister) and vizier for 22 years under three Ilkhans – i.e. Hulagu, Abaqa and Ahmad Tekuder – was martyred by the next ruler, Arghun Khan, on the alleged poisoning of his father Abaqa Khan, who actually died of excessive drinking. Ata-Malik's father, Baha od-Din, and grandfather Mohammad had held the post of Sahib-e Divan for Mohammad Jalal od-Din Khwarezmshah and later for Chingiz Khan's son Ogedei Khan respectively.
353 solar years ago, on this day in 1662 AD, the French author and mathematician and innovator of calculation devices, Blaise Pascal, died at the age of 61. He became religious in the waning years of his life and wrote a book on Christianity titled "Provincial Letters”.
161 solar years ago, on this day in 1854 AD, the First Sioux War began when US soldiers killed Lakota chief ‘Conquering Bear’. These wars were part of the genocidal policies to exterminate the native Amerindians, and lasted till 1891, resulting in the massacre of thousands of ‘Red Indians’.
120 solar years ago, on this day in 1895 AD, China was forced to handover the Island of Formosa to Japan as per the Shimonoski Treaty. Known as Taiwan today, the island returned to Chinese sovereignty as per decisions of the Potsdam Conference following Japan's defeat in World War II. In 1949, when the communists emerged victorious in the Chinese civil war the pro-western former government authorities fled Beijing to Taiwan and with US meddling declared the island independent. Beijing insists on the return of Taiwan to mainland China.
96 solar years ago, on this day in 1919 AD, the British occupation of Afghanistan ended as per the Treaty of Rawalpindi, following the end of the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war. The term Afghanistan was used for the first time in 1857 as official name of a country, although the local tribes were known as 'Afghans' for centuries. The first independent Afghan state was set up in 1747 by Ahmad Khan Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun general of Nader Shah Afshar of Iran, who on the latter's death seized control of the eastern parts of Iranian Khorasan and the Pashto-speaking regions of the Moghul Empire of India, as well as the Punjab, to declare himself king. British attempts to meddle in Afghanistan led to the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-to-1842. Thereafter, a seesaw struggle ensued between the two sides with the British aggressively pushing their colonial policies in Kabul through threats, diplomacy, and wars, until formal independence in 1919. Afghanistan, which is under US occupation for the past 12 years, was throughout history part of successive Persian empires, while its eastern parts were occasionally under Indian rule. Today it shares borders with Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and covers an area of 647,000 sq km.
92 solar years ago, on this day in 1923 AD, Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto, French-Italian sociologist, economist and philosopher, died at the age of 75. In 1906 he made the famous observation that 20% of the population owned 80% of the property in Italy. This was generalized by Joseph M. Juran and others into the so-called Pareto principle – also termed the 80-20 rule.
85 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, Russian orientalist, Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold also known as Wilhelm Barthold, died at the age of 61. He specialized in the history of Islam and the Turkic peoples (Turkology). He was the first to publish obscure information from the early Arab historians on Kievan Rus, which later emerged as Russia. He also edited several scholarly journals of Muslim studies, and contributed extensively to the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. Bartold wrote three authoritative monographs on the history of Islam, namely, Islam (in 1918), Muslim Culture (in 1918) and The Muslim World (in 1922). He also contributed to the development of Cyrillic writing for the Muslim countries of Central Asia. Most of his writings were translated in English, Arabic, and Persian. Bartold's collected works were reprinted in 9 volumes between 1963 and 1977, and whilst Soviet editors added footnotes deploring his 'bourgeois' attitudes, his prestige was such that the text was left uncensored, despite not conforming to a Marxist interpretation of history. His works include: "Ulugh-Beg”, "Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion”, "Mussalman Culture”, "A Short History of Turkestan", and "An Historical Geography of Iran”.
62 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, the US staged a coup in Iran to overthrow the government of Prime Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq in retaliation for nationalization of the oil industry and to return to the Peacock Throne the fugitive British-installed Pahlavi potentate, Mohammad Reza. The coup plotters mobilized a number of thugs to take to the streets and attack government centres with the assistance of mercenaries in the security forces. General Fazlollah Zahedi, a US pawn, announced the collapse of the Mosaddeq administration and his own appointment as the premier through the radio network. The consequence of the coup was Washington’s total domination over Iran’s sources, which continued until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
31 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, prominent Iranian physician and bacteriologist, Mrs Azar Andami, passed away at the age of 58. Born in Rasht, she dedicated her life to the promotion of medical sciences in Iran, and won international acclaim. A crater on Venus has been named in her honour as "Andami” by the International Astronomers Union (IAU.
24 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, a group of the Soviet Union’s army commanders staged a coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev to end his policy of reforms, while he was holidaying in the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. However, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Federation, foiled the coup. The ensuring developments speeded up the end of the suffocating, anti-religious and totalitarian Soviet Union in December 1991 and led to the emergence as independent republics of many of the lands occupied by Czarist Russia.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)