1321 lunar years ago, on this day in 114 AH, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in Medina at the age of 57, through poisoning by the Omayyad caliph, Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik. His epithet "Baqer al-Uloum” means Splitter and Spreader of Sciences and he spared no efforts to promote the pure and pristine teachings of Islam in an era when foreign ideas and thoughts were confusing Muslim minds. His period of imamate was 19 years, and he was descended on both sides from the Prophet.
1329 lunar years ago, on this day in 106 AH, the jurisprudent and narrator of hadith, Tawous ibn Kaysaan al-Yamani passed away in Mecca. He is said to be of Persian stock from Hamadan and was a resident of Yemen. He has narrated the "munajaat” or whispered supplications to God Almighty of Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He is held in esteem by both the Shi’ite and Sunni scholars. The famous Iranian Sunni compilers such as Bukhari, Muslim Naishapuri, Tirmizi, have recorded hadith on his authority.
1256 lunar years ago, on this day in 179 AH, Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), after being detained in Medina by the tyrannical Abbasid caliph, Haroun Rashid, was brought to the Iraqi port city of Basra and imprisoned in the palace of the governor, Eisa bin Ja’far. For a year he languished here and was taken to Baghdad to the house of Fazl bin Rabee’ for imprisonment. In 183 AH, on the 25th of Rajab, Imam Kazem (AS) left the mortal world, a martyr, after his food was poisoned on the orders of Haroun, who knew that as long as the Prophet’s rightful successor was alive, his claim to caliphate was under question.
1218 solar years ago, on this day in 788 AD, Hisham I became Emir of the Omayyad dynasty of Spain following the death of his father Abdur-Rahman Ibn Mu’awiya – the founder of the dynasty and a grandson of the tyrannical self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Hisham Ibn Abdul-Malik. He ruled for 8 years from his capital Cordoba. During his 8-year rule, he was faced with rebellions from his brothers as well as the penetration south across the western and eastern Pyrenees by Carolingian Christians. In 793 he sent troops to Girona and Narbonne against the Franks. Hisham led a life of austerity shunning ostentation, but continued pressure on the northern Spanish Christian principalities by raiding them almost every year. In 794, he sacked Oviedo, forcing Alfonso II of Asturias to flee to the court of Charlemagne of France.
1072 lunar years ago, on this day in 363 AH, the scholar, orator, and historian, Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Thabet, known popularly as Khateeb al-Baghdadi, passed away in Baghdad at the age of 73. Born near Baghdad, he was the son of a preacher of Darzidjan and began studying at an early age with his father and other scholars. Although he studied other sciences but his primary interest was hadith. At the age of 20 he went to Basra to collect hadith. He then travelled east to Iran and made two trips to Naishapur in Khorasan, collecting in his journey more hadith in Rayy and Isfahan. Back in Baghdad, he acquired fame as a preacher and orator, and it is said that teachers and preachers of hadith would usually submit to him what they had collected before they used them in their lectures or sermons. Initially a follower of the Hanbali School of jurisprudence, he switched over to the Shafe’i school – a change that made Hanbalis his bitter enemies and heap accusations against him. This sectarian hostility forced him to leave Iraq for Syria and settle in Damascus, where he preached for 8 years, and before returning to Baghdad, spent a year in Tyre, Lebanon. He was a prolific writer and has authored several books, the most famous of which is the voluminous history titled "Tarikh al-Baghdad”.  He has quoted many of the hadith on the merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).
827 solar years ago, on this day in 1187 AD, a memorable event occurred in Islamic history. A united Muslim army of Arab, Turks, Kurds, and Iranians, under command of the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, Salaheddin the Kurd, liberated the Islamic holy city of Bayt ol-Moqaddas after 88 years of occupation by the Christian Crusaders of Europe. He thus ended the illegal existence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, which the European occupiers had set up in Palestine after massacring as many as 70,000 Muslim men, women, and children in Bayt al-Moqaddas in 1099 while seizing it from the Ismaili Shi’ite Fatemid Dynasty of Egypt-North Africa. The anniversary of this day is a reminder to world Muslims that God Willing, Bayt al-Moqaddas will again be liberated and the illegal Zionist entity will cease to exist.
462 solar years ago, on this day in 1552 AD, Kazan, the capital of Tataristan, was occupied after a long siege by Russia’s Ivan the Terrible, who massacred as many as 110,000 Tartar Muslims, and forcibly converted to Christianity many others, after destroying mosques or turning them into churches. The fall of Tataristan was the culmination of almost a century of sea-saw struggle for domination of the region by the Muslims and Christians. The Tartar Khan Yadegar Mohammad was captured by the Russians. By 1593, mosques in the area were destroyed and Russia forbade the construction of new mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century. Today Tataristan is an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation and the overwhelming majority of its people are Muslims.
214 solar years ago, on this day in 1800 AD, Nat Turner, the black Afro-American who led the so-called "slave revolution” in the US, was born. In August 1931 after assembling the freedom-seeking black people of Africa who were enslaved in the US, he started an uprising in Virginia, by freeing many African people from slavery. The uprising was brutally crushed after a few days by the White racist government. Turner survived in hiding for over two months, but was seized and executed. The white Americans then massacred over 200 black people in the southern states, where state legislatures passed laws prohibiting education of the so-called slaves as well as free black-coloured people, as well as restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for them.
145 solar years ago, on this day in 1869 AD, the leader of India’s struggle for independence from British rule, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was born in Por-Bandar seaport of Gujarat. He went to London and trained as lawyer and also lived for sometime in British-ruled South Africa where he was discriminated against by the white authorities because of skin colour. On returning to India, he joined the Congress party and soon led the civil-disobedience movement for independence, as part of his policy of non-violence. Gandhi used to say and also wrote that the factor which inspired him to struggle against heavy odds was the immortal epic of Imam Husain (AS), the Martyr of Karbala. In 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu terrorist.
117 solar years ago, on this day in 1897 AD, the famous Persian poetess of the Caucasus, Khurshid-Banu Natavan, passed away in Shusha at the age of 65. Daughter of Mahdi Quli Khan, the last ruler of the Qarabagh khanate, she is considered the best lyrical poet of what is known today as the Republic of Azerbaijan and which throughout history has been part of Iran, until its occupation by the Russians in the 19th century. Her ancestor Panah Ali Khan was appointed governor by the Safavid Emperor of Iran.
93 solar years ago, on this day in 1921 AD, the police chief of Khorasan, Colonel Mohammad Taqi Khan Pesyaan, was killed by agents of the regime. He was a highly influential figure and strove for Iran’s independence. Following the British-engineered coup to install the colonialist agent Reza Khan as prime minister of the Qajarid king, he commenced his struggle against infiltration by foreign powers and their local lackeys. He was joined by officers in Khorasan and soon took charge of all provincial affairs in the name of the beleaguered government of Ahmad Shah Qajar. As a result battles started with Reza Khan’s agents, leading to his martyrdom.
73 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, the Nazi German leader, Adolf Hitler, launched a second offensive on the Soviet Union during World War 2. In its first offensive, started on June 22, 1941, Germany occupied parts of the Soviet Union. The goal was to seize Moscow, prior to the onset of winter. The Soviet people and the army stoutly defended and foiled Hitler’s bid.
22 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, a bloody massacre of prisoners took place in Carandiru Penitentiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, when police stormed it to quell a prison revolt. It left 111 prisoners dead and is considered a major human rights violation in the history of Brazil.
Two solar years ago, on this day 2012 AD, Bahraini activist, 24-year old Mohammad Mushaima, attained martyrdom due to torture and medical negligence by jailors of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, prompting the international Human Rights Watch to call for an investigation. He was detained illegally in March 2011 for taking part in a peaceful rally and had been hospitalized since August 2011 because of acute torture.
 This Day in History (October 3)
Tomorrow is Friday; 11th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1435 lunar hijri; and October 3, 2014, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1375 lunar years ago, on this day in 60 AH, Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), left Mecca via the plain of Arafat for Iraq, since he was loathe to see this inviolable land desecrated by bloodshed, as the tyrant Yazid had sent assassins to attack him. Four months earlier, the Imam had left his hometown, Medina after refusing to acknowledge the illegitimate rule of Yazid. In Mecca, the Imam informed people of the corrupt and oppressive nature of the Godless Omayyads. The reason he left for Iraq was the repeated invitation of the people of Kufa to resolve their affairs. His departure without completing the Hajj, made the Muslims aware of the anti-Islamic policies of Yazid.
1114 solar years ago, on this day in 900 AD, the Alawid Emir of Tabaristan, Mohammad Ibn Zayd, known as "ad-Da’i as-Sagheer” (the Younger Missionary), attained martyrdom, a day after he was mortally wounded in battle near Gorgan, while defending his realm of the Caspian Sea coast of Iran against the Samanid invaders. He was 6th in line of descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Samanid army decapitated his corpse and took his head to Bukhara, while the body was buried at the gate of Gorgan and soon became a centre of pilgrimage. His death ended the 36-year rule of the First Alawid state established in what are now the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan He rebuilt the holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala that were destroyed some forty years earlier by the Godless Abbasid tyrant Mutawakkel.  

(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)