Today is Sunday; 30th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 2nd of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and October 22, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1318 lunar years ago, on this day in 121 AH, Zayd bin Ali, a son of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – the great-grandson and 4th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – was cruelly martyred near Kufa in Iraq by the Godless Omayyad regime, at the age of 42. His mother was a virtuous lady from Sindh in what is now Pakistan, and he rose up against the tyranny of Hesham Ibn Abdul-Malik, the 10th self-styled caliph of the usurper regime, in order to safeguard the achievements of the uprising of his Infallible Grandfather, Imam Husain (AS). After being deserted by the Kufans, he bravely fought until he was martyred. His son Yayha buried him in the riverbed of the Euphrates by briefly diverting the waters and then restoring their normal flow, but the Omayyads bribed turncoats to find the location. They took out the corpse of this pious and learned member of the Prophet’s Household, decapitated it, and hung it on the gallows for four years. Zayd’s martyrdom was foretold by the Prophet of Islam over a hundred and ten years ago when he put his hand on the back of his younger grandson, and said: "O Husain, it will not be long until a man will be born among your descendants. He will be called Zayd; he will be killed as a martyr. On the day of resurrection, he and his companions will enter heaven.” Zayd’s body was later buried, and his head which had been sent to Damascus was, after the fall of the hated Omayyads, buried in Karak in Jordan, which was then part of Syria. Zayd’s sons were also persecuted, especially Yayha, who was martyred in 125 AH, after a valiant fight in distant Khorasan in the area called Jowzajan which is presently in Afghanistan. The Zaydi Shi’ite Muslims of Yemen revere Martyr Zayd as an Imam, although he never claimed the imamate, and was obedient to his elder brother, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), and after him to his nephew, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS).
1276 solar years ago, on this day in 741 AD, Charles Martel, the Frankish statesman and military leader who, as Duke of the Franks, was de facto ruler of Francia, died after 23 years in power. An illegitimate son of the German chief, Pepin, he was notorious for his barbaric nature as marauder of the frontiers of the Roman Empire. He took advantage of the infighting amongst the Muslims to lead the Christians to victory in the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers in France, southwest of Paris, where in 732 the Omayyad forces were defeated and their commander, Abdur-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, killed. In 737, he again crushed an Omayyad army at Arles in southern France. He then took the city by a direct and brutal frontal attack, and burned it to the ground. He then moved swiftly and defeated a mighty host outside of Narbonnea at the River Berre, but failed to take the city. Many historians, including Edward Creasy, believe that had Martel failed at Tours, the Muslims would probably have overrun Gaul, and perhaps the remainder of Western Europe. The British historian, Edward Gibbon believed that the Muslim armies would have conquered up to the Rhine, and even England, having the English Channel for protection, with ease, had Martel not prevailed.
1172 lunar years ago, on this day in 257 AH, a person of obscure origin and said to be a descendant of slaves, who went by the name of Ali bin Mohammad and styled himself Sahib az-Zanj or Leader of the black-skinned people of East African origin, was finally killed in southern Iraq after having unleashed a great sedition and destruction. A Godless person, he lived for a while in the Abbasid capital, Samarra, where he mixed with some of the influential slaves of Caliph Muntasir and saw the deep financial discrimination among Muslims as a result of state policy. He moved to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, where he pretended to be Shi’a Muslim in order to rouse the people into rebellion against the caliphate. His followers grew so large that land taxes were collected in his name, but the rebellion failed, and he relocated to the Iraqi port city of Basra, where he claimed himself to be a Kharijite or renegade from Islam and started collecting around him the bonded labourers of the marshlands. Soon, supported by Bedouin Arabs and black-skinned people, he styled himself Emir and embarked on plunder, death and destruction. He launched a general massacre of the populace, burning entire localities including the Jame’ Mosque, where he killed the eminent grammarian Abbas bin Faraj Riyyashi while in prayer. His rebellion, which coincided with the secession of Egypt by Ahmad ibn Toloun and of the uprising in Iran of Yaqoub bin Laith Saffar, lasted 14 years, during which he seized southern Iraq up to Wasset and parts of Iran’s Khuzestan, defeating several armies sent by the Abbasid caliphs, until he was defeated and killed. He left a trail of destruction and famine, with agricultural lands desolate and as many as half-a-million people killed. The Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), had prophesied the revolt of Saheb az-Zanj two centuries earlier, citing Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) as source of information, as is evident from the following passage in Sermon 127 of Nahj al-Balagha:
"O' Ahnaf! It is as though I see him advancing with an army which has neither dust nor noise, nor rustling of reins, nor neighing of horses. They are trampling the ground with their feet as if they are the feet of ostriches.”
1111 solar years ago, on this day in 906 AD, Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh, a Turkic general of the Abbasid regime, joined by the governor of Tarsus, the Iranian Rustam ibn Baradu al-Farghani, led a deep raid into the Byzantine Empire, defeating Eastern Roman armies as far as Halys River (Qizilirmak in what is now Turkey), and seizing large booty, including some 5,000 prisoners. Some of the local Greek commanders surrendered to the Muslims and embraced Islam. Rustam al-Farghani on several occasions supervised the exchange of prisoners with the Byzantines. Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh, who was appointed governor of Syria and of Egypt, on being deposed and defeated by the Abbasid regime in 935, defected to the rising empire of the Fatemid Shi’a Ismaili Muslim Dynasty of North Africa and Sicily that would soon conquer Egypt, Syria and Hijaz.  
694 lunar years ago, on this day in 745 AH, Spanish Muslim poet and literary figure, Mohammad Ibn Yusuf Ibn Ali al-Barbari, known as Abu-Hayyan al-Gharnati, passed away at the age of 91 in Cairo, Egypt. Born in Granada (Gharnata) in southern Spain, he travelled widely to acquire knowledge, before moving to Ceuta in what is now Morocco in North Africa. He then traveled through Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and reached Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. He wrote the famous book "al-Bahr al-Muheet” on the linguistic meanings of the holy Qur’an. A master of Arabic grammar, he considered himself a student of the school of the celebrated Iranian grammarian of Arabic language, Sibwaiyh of Shiraz. He has left behind numerous books, including a Diwan or collection of poems.
677 lunar years ago, on this day in 762 AH, Muslim astronomer, mathematician, and theologian, Ali Ibn Mohammad Ibn ad-Durayhim, passed away. He lived mostly in Syria and Egypt and lectured for many years on various topics. He is considered the pioneer of the science of cryptanalysis. In fact, he was the first to analyze the various capabilities of substitution for cipher or zero, and to present what is called today the Vigenere Table. He actually formulated this table more than two centuries before the European Blaise de Vigenere, who seems to have copied it from Islamic sources. Ibn ad-Durayhim's book entitled "Clear Chapters Goals and Solving Ciphers" was recently discovered. It includes the use of statistical techniques pioneered by the famous philosopher Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi.
523 solar years ago, on this day in 1494 AD, the second expedition of the Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, started from Spain with the assistance of Spanish Muslims, who very well knew the sea routes of the Atlantic Ocean including what the Europeans later called the American continent. Columbus landed on the Antilles islands in the Caribbean Sea. Two years earlier in 1492, he had made his first expedition to this new world, which he thought was India, and hence the Spanish called the indigenous American people, Red Indians.
383 solar years ago, on this day in 1634 AD, in the Battle of Southern Fujian Sea, the Ming dynasty of China defeated the Dutch East India Company.
310 solar years ago, on this day in 1707 AD, the Scilly naval disaster occurred as four warships of a British fleet sank near the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Britain, in severe weather, resulting in the death of 1,550 sailors, along with Admiral Cloudesley Shovell. It was one of the worst maritime disasters, as a result of the navigators' miscalculation.
227 solar years ago, on this day in 1790 AD, Warriors of the Miami tribe under Chief Little Turtle defeated US troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War. The next year, the Amerindians again defeated a US army at St. Clair, killing about 1,000 soldiers. After St. Clair's disaster, President George Washington ordered General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to attack the natives, and in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, he brutally massacred a large number of natives and forced the tribal leaders to cede extensive territory, including much of present-day Ohio, as per the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The US has since unleashed genocide to eliminate the race and culture of the native Amerindian people.
121 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, American biochemist, Charles Glen King, who discovered vitamin C, was born. After five years of painstaking research extracting components from lemon juice, in 1932, he isolated vitamin C. Its structure was quickly determined and it was synthesized by scientists such as Haworth and Reichstein in 1933. Also known as ascorbic acid, (a- = not, without; scorbus = scurvy), vitamin C is a colourless crystalline water-soluble vitamin found especially in citrus fruits and green vegetables. Most organisms synthesize it from glucose but man and other primates and various other species must obtain it from their diet. It is required for the maintenance of healthy connective tissue; deficiency leads to scurvy. Vitamin C is readily destroyed by heat and light.
106 solar years ago, on this day in 191l AD, in a blatant act of violation of Iran’s sovereignty, the British set up a joint force of English and Indian troops to police the southern parts of Iran and provide to security to colonial trade, at the expense of the weak Qajarid government of Iran, which had already succumbed to the pressure of Tsarist Russia to set up a similar force of Qazzaqs in the northern parts. Even the parliament voted against the British measures, it was powerless in the face of the domineering colonialist powers.  
106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the prominent scholar, Ayatollah Mullah Ali Zanjani passed away. A student of Shaikh Mohammad Taqi (author of "Hidayat-ol-Mustarshidin”), and contemporary of the celebrated Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli, he in turn groomed outstanding ulema such as Mirza Habibollah Rashti. He strove to solve the problems of people and was a prolific author as well. Among his books, mention could be made of an exegesis of the holy Qur’an, and "Jawame’ al-Usoul”.
65 solar years ago, on this day in 1952 AD, Iranian foreign minister, Dr. Hussein Fatemi, announced severance of political ties with Britain. This decision was made by Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq after a vote from the parliament. Dr Fatemi summoned the British Charge D' Affaires and pointed out that the reason behind the severance of ties with Britain has been the indifference of the British regime toward the Iranian nation's demands for fulfillment of the people's rights in relation to nationalization of Iran's oil industry.
99 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, the last phase of World War I started with the attacks of the allied forces in northwestern Europe. The German forces initially strongly resisted the offensive, but the Allied forces eventually prevailed, thus ending World War I in November 1918 after four years of war.
61 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, the premiers of France, Britain, and the Zionist regime of Israel, in a meeting behind closed doors in France, hatched the plot to attack Egypt. After the Egyptian President, Jamal Abdun-Nasser, announced the nationalization of Suez Canal in the year 1956, France and Britain were intent on occupying this Canal due to losing their illegitimate interests in the region. Moreover, the illegal Zionist entity called Israel, which considered Egypt as its main enemy, intended to use this opportunity to deal a major blow against this leading Arab country. A week after the secret meeting of French, British, and Israeli regime premiers, the armies of these states attacked Egypt. But, during this offensive, the invaders failed to reach their goals.
42 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, British historian, Arnold Toynbee, died at the age of 86. His 12-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, titled "A Study of History”, took 27 years to complete, and is a synthesis of world history, based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global perspective. After initially supporting the Zionist movement at the turn of the 20th century, he gradually changed his outlook and by 1950, two years after the illegitimate birth of Israel, was a strong opponent of the Zionist entity, and supported the Arab cause.
38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, the US regime, despite warnings from the provisional revolutionary government of Iran, allowed the deposed Shah to come to New York – on the excuse of medical treatment – a provocative move by the Americans that led revolutionary students to take over the US embassy in Tehran, which was violating diplomatic norm by serving as an espionage den for Washington in the region.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)