Today is Thursday; 8th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 27th of the Islamic month of Zi’l-Hijjah 1437 lunar hijri; and September 29, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2538 solar years ago, on this day in 522 BC, a few months after the suspicious death of Emperor Cambyses II (son of Cyrus the Great) his lance-bearer and Achaemenian kinsman, who had seized power and styled himself Emperor Darius I, killed what he has claimed in the Bistoun Inscription: "Gaumata the Magian Priest impersonating Bardiya, the younger son of Emperor Cyrus the Great." Darius, to justify his seizure of the Iranian throne, further claimed that Cambyses on becoming king of Persia and before setting out for Egypt, had killed Bardiya and kept this secret – but he never says how he came to know of this secret. According to historians, on his deathbed Cyrus the Great had appointed Bardiya as satrap (governor) of some of the far-eastern provinces, and they are thus skeptical of Darius' account, since following the death of Cambyses none of the women in the royal harem had doubts about the identity of Bardiya. The only speculation is that if Darius I – who now married Atossa the daughter of Cyrus the Great to legitimize his rule – is telling the truth, Gaumata may have completely brought Bardiya under his control, thereby threatening to usurp the rule of the Achaemenians. 
1305 lunar years ago, on this day in 132 AH, on this day in 750 AD, the 13th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Marwan II, titled "al-Hemar” (or the Donkey), was caught and killed in Egypt at the age of 62 after a 6-year rule while fleeing through Syria, Palestine, and North Africa, following defeat in the Battle of Zab on the banks of the river of the same name in northern Iraq at the hands of the Abbasids on January 25 the same year. Thus ended the 91-year Godless rule of the Omayyads established in 41AH on the seizure of the Islamic realm by Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan through a dubious treaty imposed upon Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Prior to the decisive Battle of Zab, the hated Omayyads had suffered a series of defeats all the way from Iran to Iraq by the combined forces of the Abbasids, Shi’ite Muslims, and Iranians. At Zab, Marwan assembled a vast army made up of many veterans of earlier Omayyad campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, but the zeal of the opponents demoralized his forces and they fled in the face of determined attack. Marwan escaped the battlefield and was relentless pursued by the Abbasids, who cornered him in Abusir in Nile delta and executed him. Marwan had ruled for 6 years from Damascus after being governor of Armenia and Azarbaijan for 12 years during which he terrorized the people of the Caucasus and devastated cities in Georgia.
809 solar years ago, on this day in 1207 AD, the famous Persian poet and mystic, Jalal od-Din Mohammad Balkhi Rumi, was born to Iranian parents in the village of Wakhsh, near Balkh in Khorasan. Wakhsh is now in Tajikistan while Balkh is in Afghanistan. It is said that the most important influences upon the young boy, besides his scholarly father, Baha od-Din Walad, who was connected to the spiritual lineage of Gnostic, Najm od-Din Kubra, were the Persian poets Attar Naishapuri and Sana’i Ghaznavi. He was hardly ten years when the family had to flee Khorasan towards Iraq because of the barbaric Mongol invasion. After a sojourn in Baghdad and travel to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, followed by a brief residence in Damascus, he settled in Qonya in Anatolia which was under the Persianate Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, and hence his title Rumi. He produced his famous work "Mathnawi” here and died in 1273 AD at the age of 67. He was buried in Qonya (Konya) and his shrine became a place of pilgrimage for Sufis. Iranians, Turks, Afghans, Tajiks, and other Central Asians as well as Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages. In 2007 Rumi was described as the "most popular poet in the US.” His "Mathnawi” remains one of the purest literary glories of the Persian language. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu, Punjabi, Turkish, Pashto, Chagatai language and Sindhi languages. Rumi in his poems has paid homage to the unsurpassed merits of Imam Ali (AS, the dear cousin, son-in-law and divinely-decreed vicegerent of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
746 lunar years ago, on this day in 691 AH, he world-acclaimed Persian poet of Iran, Shaikh Moslehoddin Sa’di, passed away in his hometown Shiraz. He left at a young age for Baghdad where he studied at the famous Nizamiyyah Academy, excelling in Islamic Sciences, law, governance, history, Arabic literature and theology. The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Iran led him to wander for 30 years through Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Anatolia or what is now Turkey. He also refers in his works about his travels in Sindh or present day Pakistan, as well as India and Central Asia. Sa'di performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Even during his travels he composed beautiful Persian and Arabic poems. On return to his hometown, Shiraz, he composed his two famous masterpieces, the "Bustan” or the Orchard and the "Golestan” of the Rose Garden. The poems in Bustan speak of such topics as justice, love, kindness, modesty, contentment, education, repentance, and prayers. The next year he completed the "Golestan”, which is in prose, and also contains his Arabic and Persian poems, in addition to moral and social anecdotes in 8 chapters. His collection of poems also includes odes and quatrains. The tomb of Sa’di in Shiraz is a frequently visited site.
469 solar years ago, on this day in 1547 AD, Spanish author and novelist,   Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, was born near Madrid. His magnum opus is "Don Quixote”, considered to be the first modern European novel. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called "la lengua de Cervantes” (the language of Cervantes). "Don Quixote” has been regarded chiefly as a novel of purpose. He wrote it to satirize the chivalric romance and to challenge the popularity of a form of literature that had been a favorite of the general public for more than a century. Cervantes enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued and was captured by Algerian-Ottoman naval forces. After 5 years of captivity he was released by his captors. He died in 1616 in Madrid, Spain.
258 solar years ago, on this day in 1758 AD, Horatio Nelson, British naval commander who defeated the French and their allies on numerous occasions during Napoleonic Wars, was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. Noted for his superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, he was wounded several times in combat, losing one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the sight in one eye in Corsica. He was shot and killed during his final victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. A morally-loose person, Nelson openly lived an adulterous life despite the denunciations of his father, who was a priest.
115 solar years ago, on this day in 1901 AD, the Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi, was born in Rome. He discovered the law on movement of gas molecules. He also conducted extensive research on the atomic changes of elements and succeeded in making an atomic battery through atomic fission for release of atomic energy. He died in 1954.
114 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD, French journalist, author, and playwright, Emile Zola, died in Paris at the age of 62 as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney. His funeral on 5 October was attended by thousands. He was the most well-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus.
105 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, Italy declared war on the tottering Ottoman Empire. The war lasted till October 18, 1912, and as a result, Italy captured the North African Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, Cyrenaica, and Tripoli itself. It changed the name of the land to Libya. During the conflict, Italian forces also occupied the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea. Italy imposed the Treaty of Ouchy (also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne (1912) signed in Lausanne, Switzerland), forcing the Ottomans to renounce all claims on these islands. The Ottomans had to withdraw all their military forces and administrative agents from Libya according to Article 2 of the Treaty of Ouchy. Although minor, the war was a significant precursor of the First World War as it sparked nationalism in the Balkan states. Seeing how easily the Italians had defeated the weakened Ottomans, the members of the Balkan League attacked the Ottoman Empire before the war with Italy had ended. The Italo-Turkish War saw numerous technological changes, notably the airplane. On October 23, 1911, an Italian pilot, Captain Carlo Piazza, flew over Turkish lines on the world's first aerial reconnaissance mission, and on November 1, the first ever aerial bomb was dropped by Sottotenente Giulio Gavotti, on Turkish troops in Libya, from an early model of Etrich Taube aircraft. The Turks, lacking anti-aircraft weapons, were the first to shoot down an aeroplane by rifle fire. It was also in this conflict that the future first president of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, distinguished himself militarily as a young officer during the Battle of Tobruk in Libya.
103 solar years ago, on this day in 1913, German engineer Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel who invented the internal-combustion engine that bears his name, died at the age of 55. After studying the four-stroke internal combustion engines developed by Nikolaus Otto, he conceived of an engine that would approach the thermodynamic limit established by Sadi Carnot in 1824. If the fuel in a cylinder could be expanded at constant pressure, it could get closer to Carnot's limit. Diesel patented the concept in 1892, while working at the firm of the refrigeration engineer Carl von Linde in Berlin. After boarding an English Channel steamer, he was found dead in the sea. It was most likely suicide resulting from depression, after having lost control over his invention and after receiving a great deal of criticism in the German engineering journals for his theories
98 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, during the last months of World War I, the Battle of St. Quentin Canal was launched by the Allied Powers, headed by Britain, and resulted in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line of defence set by the Axis Powers, led by Germany, forcing Bulgaria to sign an armistice. On November 11, 1918 with the surrender of Germany, World War I ended.
24 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Angola in southern Africa held its first free elections, resulting in victory for Jose Eduardo dos Santos of MEPLA, who retained his post of president, which he had won in 1976, a year after independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Following the withdrawal of Portugal in 1975, civil war broke out between MEPLA, supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba, and UNITA, backed up by the US and the apartheid regime of South Africa, often leading to invasions by white racist troops from the south. Even after the 1992 elections and the signing of a peace accord by the two rival groups did not end these clashes, because of Washington's meddling in internal affairs despite the end of cold war and the breakup of the Soviet Union. The 27-year long civil war came to its end in February 2002 with the death of UNITA leader, Jonos Savimbi.
3 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, a kangaroo court set up by the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime of Bahrain handed jail terms of up to 15 years to 50 Shi’a Muslim citizens, including a prominent Iraqi religious scholar. The Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain, with the military backing of the equally repressive pseudo state called Saudi Arabia, is violating the rights of Bahrainis, including their torture, imprisonment, and killing, in addition to desecration of mosques and husseiniyahs.  
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)
1