This Day in History

(March 1)

Date: 28 February 2015 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۱۵۰۷

Today is Sunday; 10th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1393 solar hijri; corresponding to 10th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Awwal 1436 lunar hijri; and March 1, 2015, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2101 solar years ago, on this day in 86 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, as part of the expansionist policies of the Roman Republic, entered Athens at the head of an army to remove the philosopher- king, Aristion, who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus and Armenia Minor. Mithridates ("Gift of Mithra” in Old Persian), was a prince of mixed Iranian-Greek ancestry, who ruled what is now northern Turkey. He claimed descent from Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, and Regent Antipater, the Greek General of Alexander of Macedon. As protector of Greece and Hellenistic civilization, he regarded the Romans as barbarians, and fought three wars against them until his defeat and death during his 57-year reign.
1429 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, Khosrow Pervez, the powerful 22nd emperor of the Iranian Sassanid Empire, was killed by his own son, Shirvieh (Qobad II), after a string of setbacks against Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire, following his early spectacular victories that had taken his armies to the gates of Constantinople and brought Syria, Palestine and Egypt, under his control. He died a humiliating death, as per the prediction of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), whose epistle inviting him to the truth of Islam he had scornfully tore into pieces. Six years later the Muslims defeated the Sassanids and captured their capital Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia, and within a few years the whole empire was brought into the fold of Islam, with the Iranian people, tired of the tyranny of their rulers, becoming Muslims by conviction
1410 lunar years ago, on this day in 36 AH, the Battle of Jamal took place near Basra in Iraq, between the forces of Islam, led by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) and the seditionists led by Talha and Zubayr. The 1st Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), won a decisive victory after his efforts to persuade the seditionists to return to the fold of Islam failed. Both Talha and Zubayr were killed along with 13,000 seditionists. Imam Ali (AS) magnanimously pardoned the rest and even allowed Ayesha, the erring wife of the Prophet, who had joined the seditionists, to return in peace and respect to Medina. The Prophet had warned Ayesha during his lifetime against committing the fatal mistake and sin of opposing his divinely-decreed vicegerent, Imam Ali (AS).
1056 lunar years ago, on this day in 380 AH, the well-known Iranian Islamic astronomer and mathematician, Abu-Ja’far ibn Ayoub Tabari Haseb, passed away. He has left behind a book in Persian language titled "Shish Fasl” which presents questions and answers on astronomy.
978 lunar years ago, on this day in 458 AH, the Iranian Sunni scholar of Hadith, Ahmad ibn Hussain Ibn Ali al-Khosrojerdi al-Bayhaqi, passed away at the age of 74 in his native Khorasan. Born in the town of Khosroujerd near Sabzevar (then known as Bayhaq), he followed the Shafe'i school in jurisprudence and the Ash'ari school in theology.  He studied fiqh from Abu’l-Fath Naser ibn al-Hussain an-Nayshapuri, and hadith from Hakem an-Nayshapuri, the compiler of the famous "al-Mustadrik ala as-Sahihayn”. Known as Imam Bayhaqi, he authored several books including "Sunan al-Kubra” (also called "Sunan al-Bayhaqi”), "al-Asma' wa’s-Sifaat” (The Divine Names and Attributes) and "Dala'el an-Nubuwwah” (Proofs of Prophethood)
755 solar years ago, on this day in 1260 AD, Hulagu Khan’s Mongol’s army, led by his Christian general Kitbuqa, seized Damascus, sixteen days after the sack of Aleppo and two years after the infamous destruction of Baghdad. The Buddhist Mongols and their Armenian and Crusader Allies, desecrated numerous mosques in Damascus and held a Christian Mass in the Grand Omayyad Mosque. The three Christian generals, Kitbuqa the Mongol, the Armenian Hetoum, and Bohemond the European Crusader ruler of occupied Palestine, celebrated their triumph in Damascus by slaughtering Muslims.
453 solar years ago, on this day in 1562 AD, the Bloodbath of Vassy occurred in France when General de Guise allowed the Catholic sect of Christianity to massacre 1200 Huguenots (Protestants), many of them during a church service, marking start of the French Wars of Religion that lasted till the Edict of Nantes in 1598, resulting in the killing of over four million people from both the sects. Europe has a bloody record of inter-Christian conflicts.
449 solar years ago, on this day in 1565 AD, Rio de Janeiro was founded by the Portuguese on the western shores of Guanabara Bay and was named Sao Sebastiao. Since the Guanabara Bay inlet was the site of the first landing by the Portuguese in 1502 it was named Rio de Janeiro (January River) – a name that stuck to the new city whose proper name Sao Sebastiao was gradually dropped. Until early in the 18th century, the city was threatened or invaded by several, mostly French, pirates. In 1763, the colonial administration in Portuguese America was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. The city remained primarily capital of Brazil until 1808, when the Portuguese royal family and most of the associated Lisbon nobles, fleeing from Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Portugal, moved to Rio de Janeiro. The kingdom of Portugal's capital was transferred to Rio de Janeiro, which thus, became the only European capital outside of Europe. The Portuguese kidnapped from Africa and forced into slavery in Brazil hundreds of thousands of black people, to the extent that in 1840, the number of these slaves in Rio de Janeiro alone had reached 220,000. When Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822, he decided to keep Rio de Janeiro as the capital of his new empire. Rio continued as the capital after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic. It remained the capital until the founding of Brasilia as the new capital.
302 solar years ago, on this day in 1713 AD, the siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka was begun by the British, Dutch, and Germans in North Carolina against the local Amerindians, resulting in the slaughter of almost a thousand Amerindians of the Tuscarora nation and the imprisonment of hundreds of women and children who were sold into slavery in the Caribbean so they could not return to their homeland. The year before, the white men had killed over three hundred Tuscarora people and sold into slavery over a hundred women and children. The 4-year Tuscarora War (1711-to-1715) which resulted in the slaughter of thousands of Amerindians was the bloodiest conflict at the end of which the interior of North Carolina was effectively opened up for European colonization. When the first Europeans arrived in North Carolina in the 1650s, the Tuscarora had lived in peace with them, at a time when nearly every other colony in America was actively involved in some form of conflict with Native Americans. However, the white settlers increasingly encroached on Tuscarora land, raided villages to take slaves, and introduced epidemic diseases. After their defeat, most of the Tuscarora migrated north towards what later became New York where they were joined their Iroquoian cousins, before their ultimate annihilation by the white. The US has a bleak and blood record of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
200 solar years ago, on this day in 1815 AD, the 100-day restoration of Napoleon Bonaparte’s rule over France started following his escape from his place of exile, the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Seas. Finally, Napoleon was defeated by the combined armies of Britain and Prussia at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, and was deported to the remote S. Helena Island in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died six years later through poisoning by the British.
144 solar years ago, on this day in 1871 AD, following the defeat of France by Germany, the French national parliament dethroned Napoleon III and abolished the monarchic system, 67 years after Napoleon Bonaparte had declared himself as emperor by annulling the republican constitution of the French Revolution of 1789.
123 solar years ago, on this day in 1892 AD, the Japanese literary figure and author, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, was born in Tokyo. He is considered as one of the founders of modern literature in Japan. He authored several books. He died in 1927.
119 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity when he developed a photographic plate he left in a desk drawer with crystals of a uranium compound upon it. He found a fogged image of the uranium crystals resting on it, although the plate was wrapped in heavy black paper. He had left the objects together on 26th February, after postponing his intended experiment on phosphorescent emissions stimulated by the sun. Having being left in darkness, eventually he realized the crystals where not phosphorescing from sunlight. Instead he had found spontaneous and penetrating rays, independent of any input of energy. A glimpse of a new mystery of the atom had been revealed, investigated for years after by other scientists.
95 lunar years ago, on this day in 1341 AH, the Islamic scholar and researcher, Seyyed Abu-Bakr Hadhrami Alawi, passed away in Hyderabad-Deccan in southern India at the age of 79 years. He was of Yemeni origin conducted valuable studies on poetry and literature. He has left behind his collection of poems. His compilations include the Arabic works "ash-Shahab as-Saqeb”, and "Futouhaat al-Baheth”. He was also fluent in Persian and Urdu.
61 solar years ago, on this day in 1954 AD, the Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, was detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean by the US, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused and total vaporization of one of the atolls that disappeared in the over 100-mile wide mushroom cloud. The huge explosion was equivalent to 1,000 atomic bombs of the kind the US dropped on Hiroshima. Radioactivity made the islands an unsafe wasteland for many decades to follow. The US is the world’s most dangerously armed nuclear power with a criminal record of dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in the closing days of World War 2, as a live field test, and is the chief culprit in release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
27 solar years ago, on this day, in 1988 AD, following repeated defeats of the Ba'thist invaders at the Iranian borders, Saddam unleashed cowardly missile attacks on residential areas of Tehran and other cities. These US-supported dastardly missile attacks continued for almost 45 days, but failed to break the resistance of the Iranian people. As many as 16 missiles hit Tehran this day. It was the 4th time during the 8-year imposed war that Saddam had attacked Iranian cities.
(Courtesy: IRIB English Radio – http://english.irib.ir)