This Day in History

Date: 04 October 2020 - 21:31

News ID: ۸۳۵۱۱

(October 5)

Today is Monday; 14th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1399 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Safar 1442 lunar hijri; and October 5, 2020, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
2559 solar years ago, on this day in 539 BC, the army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon, the ancient capital of the neo-Babylonian Empire covering what are now Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, and parts of southern Turkey, northern Arabia, and eastern Sinai. Cyrus, having established the Achaemenian Empire among the Iranic peoples by ending the large Median Empire, took advantage of the weakness of Babylon, the ancient world’s capital of scholarship and science, where the rule of Nabonidus (son of an Assyrian priestess) and his son, Prince Belshazzar, was highly unpopular. He conquered the capital, almost without a fight, and claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings.
1442 solar years ago, on this day in 578 AD, Byzantine emperor, Justin II, died at the age of 58, four years after abdicating the throne in favour of Tiberius because of mental breakdown.
1239 lunar years ago, on this day in 203 AH, according to a narration, Imam Reza (AS), the 8th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred through poisoning in the city of Tous in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, by the crafty Abbasid caliph, Mamoun. In Iran, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Reza (AS) is commemorated on the last day of the month of Safar with a public holiday and official mourning ceremonies throughout the country, especially in the holy city of Mashhad, where the 8th Imam reposes in eternal peace.
806 solar years ago, on this day in 1214 AD, Alfonso VIII of Castile died at the age of 59. An avowed enemy of Muslims, in 1195 at the Battle of Alarcos in Spain he and his 300,000 strong army had suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the al-Muwahidin ruler, Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-Mansur Ibn Tifshin. It resulted in the retreat of the Christian forces to Toledo while the Muslims liberated the occupied regions of Trujillo, Montanchez and Talavera.
746 solar years ago, on this day in 1274 AD, Syrian scholar and historian, Shams od-Dīn Mohammad bin Ahmad bin Qaymaz at-Turkumani ash-Shafe’i, popular as Ibn adh-Dhahabi (son of goldsmith) was born in Damascus. Among his works mention could be made of "Tarikh al-Islam al-Kabir” (History of Islam in 50 volumes), and "Siyar A’laam an-Nubala” (Lives of Notable Figures) in 28 volumes.
570 solar years ago, on this day in 1450 AD, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria. Throughout history Jews have been severely persecuted by the Christians because of their indulgence in usury and blaspheming of the spotlessly pure personalities of Prophet Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (peace upon them).
546 lunar years ago, on this day in 896 AH, the Sunni Muslim jurisprudent and exegete of the Holy Qur’an, Abu Sa’ood Mohammad Mustafa Imadi, was born in the village of Modarres in the vicinity of Istanbul. Among his works is the exegesis of the holy Qur’an titled "Tafsir al-Irshad al-Aql” in which, citing the cause of revelation of ayahs 1-to-3 of Surah al-Ma’arej (70), he has mentioned that when a certain Hareth Ibn Nu’man al-Fahri approached Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), following the historic event of Ghadeer-Khom, saying:
207 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, Tecumseh, Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy, known as Tecumseh’s Confederacy, which opposed expansionism of the United States of America and strove to set up an independent Amerindian State, was treacherously killed by the US regime at the age of 45, a year after he had successfully helped Britain seize Detroit in the War of 1812.
187 lunar years ago, on this day in 1255 AH, the prominent scholar and reciter of Holy Qur’an, Sheikh Abdur-Rahim Tabrizi, who earned fame as "Sultan ol-Qurra” (Chief of Qur’an Reciters), was born in the city of Tabriz, in northwestern Iran. He learned the recitation of Holy Qur’an from his father, and became a master in this field as his title suggests.
156 solar years ago, on this day in 1864 AD, the French chemist, industrialist and inventor, Louis Jean Lumiere was born. He worked with his brother Auguste, to make pioneering motion-picture equipment by inventing the 25-lb Cinematograph twin-function projector and camera, which improved on Thomas Edison’s Kinescope by adding an intermittent film motion mechanism (based on the sewing machine). It was first demonstrated to an invited audience on 22 March 1895, showing their first film that depicted workers leaving the Lumière factory. The hugely successful first public screening on 28 December 1895 of their films in Paris was the "birth” of the cinema. Louis Lumiere died in 1948.
156 solar years ago, on this day in 1864 AD, the Indian city of Calcutta was almost totally destroyed by a cyclone originating from the Bay of Bengal, resulting in the death of at least 70,000 people.
105 solar years ago, on this day in 1915 AD, the strategic port of Salonika in northeastern Greece was seized by Axis Powers during an important military operation of World War I. Britain, France, and Russia suffered defeat at the hands of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, losing half of their forces. World War I was eventually won by the Allied Powers resulting in the loss of huge territories for the Ottoman Turks.
72 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, a massive earthquake devastated Eshqabad city, the capital of what is now the Republic of Turkmenistan, resulting in the death of at least 110,000 people.
40 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, in a blatant anti-Iranian act of support for the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime of Saddam, Jordan put its port of Aqaba on the Gulf of the same name in the Red Sea at the disposal of Iraq during the 8-year war imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran by the US, following blockade of Iraqi ports on the Persian Gulf by the Iranian navy, and Syria’s closure of the Iraqi oil pipeline to the Mediterranean Sea. Jordan also supplied troops to Saddam for war against Iran.
38 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, French archaeologist Claude-Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer, who was the first excavator at Ras Shamra in Syria, died at the age of 84. The site, Ugarit (Minet el-Beida), dates back to the sixth or seventh millennium BC nestled in the shadow of the Jebel al-Aqra (Mount Sanpanu) by the Mediterranean Sea, 10-km north of present-day Syrian port, Latakia. It was discovered accidentally in 1928 when a peasant’s plow hit the stones of a vaulted tomb. In 1929, Schaeffer began a lifetime excavating there. His stratographic soundings revealed five separate archaeological levels. The uppermost dates from the Late Bronze Age, 1600-1200 B.C., and the time of Ugarit’s demise. The deeper levels date from the Middle Bronze Age, Early Bronze Age, Chalcolithic age of stone and copper, and the Neolithic
20 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the Serbian dictator and perpetrator of the gory Balkan wars, Slobodan Milosevic, was ousted following months of public protests and international sanctions. He was president of Serbia from 1990 to 1997 before becoming Yugoslav president. During the Bosnian war, he was an accomplice in the crimes of the Serbs against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and genocide. Nine months after his ouster, he was handed over to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but died in prison amid the sluggish progress of his prosecution.
13 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, US occupation forces backed by attack aircraft indiscriminately killed more than 30 men, women, and children, of Iraq’s Shi’a Muslim majority, north of Baghdad. The US is responsible for the direct or indirect death of at least 1.2 million Iraqis during its decade-long occupation of Iraq.
9 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, American inventor and entrepreneur, Steven Paul Jobs, who in 1976 co-founded Apple Inc. with Steve Wozniak to manufacture personal computers, died at the age of 56.