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News ID: 79010
Publish Date : 27 May 2020 - 21:51

This Day in History (May 28)



Today is Thursday; 8th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 5th of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1441 lunar hijri; and May 28, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2605 solar years ago, on this day in 585 BC, as per the prediction of Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus four days earlier, a solar eclipse occurred in the midst of a battle outside Sardis in what is now western Turkey, between the Medes of Iran and the Lydians. The battle ended in a draw. Alyattes of Lydia, agreed to enter into a truce with the Medean Emperor, Cyaxares, thus ending the Battle of Halys. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
496 solar years ago, on this day in 1524 AD, Selim II, the Drunkard, the 3rd self-styled Turkish caliph and the 11th Ottoman Sultan, was born in Istanbul.
282 solar years ago, on this day in 1738 AD, French physician Joseph Ignace Guillotin, who promoted a law requiring the use of a "machine that beheads painlessly” as a humane mode for all executions for commoners or nobles alike, was born. Without any further specifications from Guillotin, others actually designed and built the machine, and yet it still became known by his name—the guillotine.
218 solar years ago, on this day in 1802 AD, in Guadeloupe in the French controlled islands of the Caribbean Sea, Louis Delgres, along with 400 of the so-called slaves, after being cornered by Napoleon’s army in Fort Saint Charles, ignited gunpowder stores, in an attempt to kill as many of the French troops as possible, and died in the process himself with those supporting him.
177 solar years ago, on this day in 1843 AD, Noah Webster, US lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author, died. In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, titled "A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language”. In 1807 he began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, titled "An American Dictionary of the English Language”; it took eighteen years to complete.
168 solar years ago, on this day in 1852 AD, French orientalist, Eugene Burnouf, who made significant contributions to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform, died. Son of Professor Jean-Louis Burnouf (1775-1844), who was a classical scholar of high reputation, Eugene undertook deciphering of the "Avesta” manuscripts of the Zoroastrians. By his research, the knowledge of the Avestan language was first brought into the scientific world of Europe. He caused the "Vendidad Sade”, to be lithographed with the utmost care from the manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and published it in folio parts during the years 1829-1843. He made significant contributions to the deciphering of Old Persian cuneiform. In 1836, he discovered that the first of the inscriptions contained a list of the satrapies of Darius. With this clue in his hand, he was able to identify and publish an alphabet of thirty letters, most of which he had correctly deciphered. He was also an expert of Sanskrit and translated books from that language into French.
113 solar years ago, on this day in 1907 AD, the Persian newsletter "Sour-e Israfeel” started publication in Tehran. The owner was Mirza Jahangir Khan, titled "Sour-e Israfeel”, and its chief-editor Ali Akbar Dehkhoda. It was launched to promote the Constitutional Movement and to highlight the problems of the lower strata of the society. It started as a weekly newsletter and became a daily, but after only 32 editions ceased publication because of government pressures.
86 solar years ago, on this day in 1934 AD, the Majlis or parliament of Iran passed a resolution for establishing Tehran University made up of several colleges.
80 solar years ago, on this day in 1940 AD, during World War II, Belgium, was occupied by German Nazi forces.
56 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed by several combatant groups with the purpose of creating the independent State of Palestine. It is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people” by over 100 world countries and has enjoyed observer status at the United Nations since 1974.
44 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, the famous Bengali painter, Zain ul-Abedin, passed away at the age of 62. He shot into prominence in 1938 winning the gold medal while studying art in Calcutta, and got the breakthrough in 1944 with his Famine Series paintings of 1943 on the great famine that afflicted Bengal. On the partition of the subcontinent, his hometown Kishoreganj now became part of East Pakistan, which in 1971 became Bangladesh. An artist of exceptional talent and international repute, he is rightly considered the Father of Bangladeshi Art.
31 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, the Iranian Islamic scholar, Ayatollah Mir Seyyed Ali Fani Isfahani, passed away at the age of 74. He studied in his hometown Isfahan, where after attaining the status of Ijtehad; he left for holy Najaf in Iraq, where he stayed for 30 years lecturing on theology, jurisprudence, exegesis of Holy Qur’an, and ethics. He returned to Iran in 1973 and until his death 16 years later, he used to lecture in the seminary of holy Qom. He has left behind more than 80 books, on various topics, including "Exegesis of Surah Fateha”, and "Arb’ain Hadith”.
23 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, the savage Taliban militia was forced out of Mazar-e-Sharif city in northern Afghanistan by Uzbek forces led by former communist general, Abdur-Rashid Dostum, resulting in the massacre of over 3,000 of these Takfiri terrorists for their crimes against the Afghan Muslims. Later it was reported that Dostum personally supervised the mass burial of some 700 Taliban extremists in Mazar-e Sharif and another 1,300 dead at other sites. For his part, Uzbek General Malik Pahlawan killed some 1,250 Taliban militiamen by leaving them in closed container trucks in the desert sun in retaliation for their crimes against humanity.
22 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, Pakistan responded to a series of nuclear tests by India 17 days earlier with five of its own, codenamed Chagai-I. Pakistan celebrates this event every year as "Youm-e Takbir” or Day of God’s Majesty. By conducting simultaneous atomic testing of the five nuclear devices, Pakistan became the seventh nuclear-armed power. Both India and Pakistan have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
12 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declared the country a republic, thus ending the 240-year reign of the Hindu Shah dynasty. Islam, which accounts for some 10 percent of the country’s 27 million population is the third but fastest growing religion in Nepal.
12 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa, ruler of the repressive Aal-e Khalifa regime of the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, in an affront to the long oppressed Bahraini majority, appointed Houda Ezra Nonoo, a Jewish woman of Iraqi descent, as Bahrain’s ambassador to the US. Earlier in 2005, Hamad had appointed Ezra, who though born in Manama had grown up and educated in Britain, as member of the Majlis-e Shura or the local parliament. During her five years in Washington as Bahrain’s ambassador, Houda Nonoo, promoted Zionist and Israeli interests and in violation of Islamic laws initiated mixed men-and-women Iftar gatherings in Ramadhan for breaking of the day’s fast, much to the shock of American Muslims. Bahrain, which is currently in the grip of a popular uprising and with the support of the US and Saudi Arabia is brutally massacring members of the island’s Shi’a Muslim majority, has granted nationality to some fifty Jews of Iraqi and Iranian descent, as well as thousands of Salafists from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Egypt, Jordan and other parts, in a bid to change the country’s demography.   
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://parstoday.com/en)