This Day in History

Date: 06 April 2021 - 21:20

News ID: ۸۸۸۸۷

(18-1-1400)

Today is Wednesday; 18th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1400 solar hijri; corresponding to 24th of the Islamic month of Sha’ban 1442 lunar hijri; and April 7, 2021, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.
1570 solar years ago, on this day in 451 AD, Attila the Hun sacked Metz in north- eastern France and attacked other French cities and towns, massacring people and plundering properties.
1097 solar years ago, on this day in 924 AD, Berengar I of Italy, died at the age of 79, nine years after being crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John X following the Battle of Garigliano in southern Italy against the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim Caliphate of North Africa, which from its colony of Sicily held sway over southern Italian principalities.
300 solar years ago, on this day in 1721 AD, Russian Emperor, Peter the Great, attacked Sweden, and after defeating it, imposed the Treaty of Nystad, according to which Finland and parts of Sweden were occupied by Russia.
251 solar years ago, on this day in 1770 AD, prominent English poet, William Wordsworth, was born in England. In 1798, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the joint publication of "Lyrical Ballads”. His magnum opus is considered to be "The Prelude”, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded several times. Wordsworth was Britain’s Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
232 solar years ago, on this day in 1789 AD, Selim III became the 29th Ottoman sultan and 20th self-styled Turkish caliph on the death of his uncle, Abdul-Hamid I – four months after the disastrous defeat of the Turks by the combined Russian-Austrian armies and the fall of Ochakov in what is now Ukraine to Russia, which massacred all its 20,000 Muslim inhabitants.
221 lunar years ago, on this day in 1221 AH, the Ottoman empire issued a decree confirming Albanian general, Mohammed Ali Pasha, as governor of Egypt, a few years after his successful ending of the political and administrative crisis in the Land of the Nile. Later, following the sacrilegious Wahhabi attack on the shrine of Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala, Iraq, and the desecration of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by Godless elements from the Najd, the Ottoman Sultan tasked Mohammad Ali to end the sedition. He successfully accomplished the mission by restoring order to the Hijaz and sending his sons to pursue the Wahhabis right into their heartland Najd, where he ordered the destruction of their capital, Diriyya, and sent Wahhabi chieftain, Abdullah ibn Saud, in chains to Istanbul for execution for his unpardonable crimes. The dynasty founded by Mohammad Ali was known as "Khedive” from the Persian word for prince or ruler. It was overthrown in 1952 through military coup by Gen Najib and Col Jamal Abdun-Nasser.
210 solar years ago, on this day in 1811 AD, Albanian philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, and religious teacher, Hassan Tahsini, was born in the village of Ninat, Konispol, Albania in the Ottoman Empire, to religious scholar, Osman Efendi.
132 solar years ago, on this day in 1889 AD, acclaimed Latin American poetess and author, Gabriela Mistral, was born in Chile. Admiration of the important status of mothers and their sentiment is evident in her poems. She was the first Latin American poetess to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in (1945).
130 lunar years ago, on this day in 1312 AH, Source of Emulation Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi, passed away at the age of 82 in Samarra, Iraq. The name of Mirza Shirazi brings to mind the famous fatwa or edict he issued for boycott of Tobacco which forced the Qajarid king, Nasser od-Din Shah, to cancel the monopoly over tobacco production in Iran that he had granted to the British Talbot Company.
99 solar years ago, on this day in 1922 AD, German Islamologist, Annemarie Schimmel, was born in Erfurt, Germany in a cultured family. Professor Schimmel received honorary degrees and prizes on several occasions from various countries. She authored over fifty books, in addition to hundreds of articles. Books written by her include "And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety”, "Islam and the Wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom”, "A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib’s Poetry”, "A Two-Coloured Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry”, "Gabriel’s Wing: Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal”, "I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi”, "Im Reich der Grossmoguls: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur” ("The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art, and Culture”), "Classical Urdu Literature: From the Beginning to Iqbal”, "Islamic Literatures of India”, "Make a Shield from Wisdom: Selected Verses from Nasir-e Khosrow’s Divan”, and "Pain and Grace: A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-Century Muslim India”. She died in 2003in Bonn at the age of 81.
84 solar years ago, on this day in 1937 AD, Italy launched a massive attack to occupy Albania. Some 10,000 soldiers, backed by 400 planes, defeated the Albanian army in a five-day battle.
75 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, Syria’s independence from France was formally recognized.
74 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, US inventor, Henry Ford, died at the age of 84. Born in a poor family, he made watches while working as a mechanic. Later he invented motor cars and built a major auto industrial empire.
73 solar years ago, on this day in 1948 AD, the UN established the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 1950, April 7 has been celebrated as World Health Day.
57 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, following mass protests throughout Iran, the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) was freed from detention by the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. He was detained by the regime, following his historic speech on the eve of June 4, 1963 against the anti-Islamic and anti-national policies of the Shah.
41 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the United States of America unilaterally severed relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a year and two months after the victory of the Islamic Revolution which threw into the dustbin of history the British-installed and American-backed despotic Pahalavi regime. The US has never ceased its hostility towards Iran, and in its vain bid to undermine the popular Islamic system of government, has resorted to various plots including the 8-year war during the 1980s through Saddam, and the current illegal economic sanctions. The pretext for the US to sever ties was takeover of its embassy in Tehran by revolutionary students who resented its turning into a den of spies in violation of diplomatic norms. Imam Khomeini (RA) called this US measure as the only good thing Washington has done to the Iranian people, because diplomatic ties were misused for decades to oppress Iran and plunder its resources. The US has continued to plot against Islamic Iran in all spheres – political, economic, military, cultural, scientific etc. – but has failed to succeed, thanks to Divine Grace that enabled the Iranian nation’s resolve to attain self-sufficiency in all fields.
15 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Takfiri terrorists backed by the US and Saudi Arabia, blew through remote control bags of explosives they had handed to unsuspecting persons at the famous al-Buratha Mosque in northern Baghdad, martyring over a hundred Shi’a Muslim worshippers, and wounding many others.