October 12

October 12

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Hafez Day (Iran)

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This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.

Hafez

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October 12 is the 285th day of the year (286th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. 80 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

• 1971 – The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.

• 1992 – A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.

• 1997 – The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock.

• 1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

• 2000 – A US Navy frigate is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.

• 2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

Births

• 1934 – Oğuz Atay, Turkish engineer and author (d. 1977)

Deaths

• 1970 – Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet and academic (b. 1930

• 1987 – Fahri Korutürk, Turkish commander and politician, 6th President of Turkey (b. 1903)

• 1990 – Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (b. 1926)

• 2001 – Hikmet Şimşek, Turkish conductor (b. 1924)

• 2014 – Ali Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1933)

• 2015 – Abdallah Kigoda, Tanzanian politician, 8th Tanzanian Minister of Industry and Trade (b. 1953)

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Events

• 539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire. (Julian calendar)^[1]
• 633 – Battle of Hatfield Chase: King Edwin of Northumbria is defeated and killed by the British under Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd.^[2]
• 1279 – The Nichiren Shōshū branch of Buddhism is founded in Japan.^[3]
• 1398 – In the Treaty of Salynas, Lithuania cedes Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights.^[4]
• 1492 – Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas.^[5]
• 1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people.
• 1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Province.
• 1748 – War of Jenkins' Ear : A British squadron wins a tactical victory over a Spanish squadron off Havana.
• 1773 – America's first insane asylum opens.
• 1792 – The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.
• 1793 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid at the University of North Carolina.
• 1798 – Flemish and Luxembourgish peasants launch the rebellion against French rule known as the Peasants' War.
• 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute.
• 1810 – The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest.
• 1822 – Pedro I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor.
• 1847 – Werner von Siemens founds Siemens & Halske, which later becomes Siemens AG.
• 1849 – The city of Manizales, Colombia, is founded by 'The Expedition of the 20'.
• 1871 – The British in India enact the Criminal Tribes Act, naming many local communities "Criminal Tribes".
• 1890 – Uddevalla Suffrage Association is formed.
• 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.
• 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
• 1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
• 1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.
• 1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.
• 1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
• 1933 – The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
• 1944 – World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.
• 1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
• 1959 – At the national congress of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in Peru, a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party who later form APRA Rebelde.
• 1960 – Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.
• 1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma is stabbed to death during a live Television broadcast.
• 1962 – The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages.
• 1963 – After nearly 23 years of imprisonment, Reverend Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary, was released from the Soviet Union.
• 1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.
• 1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.
• 1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization continues as President Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.
• 1971 – The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.
• 1979 – The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the western Pacific Ocean during Typhoon Tip.
• 1983 – Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from the Lockheed Corporation, and is sentenced to four years in jail.
• 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
• 1988 – Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down execution-style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
• 1992 – A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.
• 1994 – The Magellan spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of Venus.
• 1997 – The Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria kills 43 people at a fake roadblock.
• 1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at University of Wyoming, dies five days after he was beaten outside of Laramie.
• 1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
• 1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.
• 2000 – A US Navy frigate is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
• 2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.
• 2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying two cosmonauts in orbit for five days.
• 2013 – Fifty-one people are killed after a truck veers off a cliff in Peru.
• 2017 – The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO.^[6] and is immediately followed by Israel.
• 2018 – Princess Eugenie marries Jack Brooksbank at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

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Births

• 1008 – Go-Ichijō, emperor of Japan (d. 1036)
• 1240 – Trần Thánh Tông, emperor of Vietnam (then Đại Việt) (d. 1290)
• 1350 – Dmitri Donskoi, Grand Duke of Moscow (d. 1389)
• 1490 – Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer and priest (d. 1548)
• 1533 – Asakura Yoshikage, Japanese ruler (d. 1573)
• 1537 – Edward VI, king of England (d. 1553)
• 1555 – Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, English diplomat (d. 1601)
• 1558 – Maximilian III, archduke of Austria (d. 1618)
• 1576 – Thomas Dudley, English-American soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1653)
• 1602 – William Chillingworth, English scholar and theologian (d. 1644)
• 1614 – Henry More, English philosopher (d. 1687)
• 1687 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German lute player and composer (d. 1750)
• 1710 – Jonathan Trumbull, American colonel and politician, 16th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1785)
• 1725 – Étienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (d. 1810)
• 1792 – Christian Gmelin, German chemist and pharmacist (d. 1860)
• 1798 – Pedro I, emperor of Brazil (d. 1834)
• 1801 – Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss lawyer and politician, 5th President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 1873)
• 1815 – William J. Hardee, American general (d. 1873)
• 1838 – George Thorn, Australian politician, 6th Premier of Queensland (d. 1905)
• 1840 – Helena Modjeska, Polish-American actress (d. 1909)^[7]
• 1855 – Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor and academic (d. 1922)
• 1860 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American engineer and businessman, co-invented the gyrocompass (d. 1930)
• 1864 – Kamini Roy, British India's first female graduate, Bengali poet, social activist, and feminist writer (d. 1933)^[8]
• 1865 – Arthur Harden, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
• 1866 – Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1937)
• 1868 – August Horch, German engineer and businessman, founded Audi (d. 1951)
• 1868 – Mariano Trías, Filipino general and politician, 1st Vice President of the Philippines (d. 1914)
• 1872 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer and educator (d. 1958)^[9]
• 1874 – Jimmy Burke, American baseball player and manager (d. 1942)
• 1875 – Aleister Crowley, English magician and author (d. 1947)
• 1878 – Truxtun Hare, American football player and hammer thrower (d. 1956)
• 1880 – Louis Hémon, French-Canadian author (d. 1913)
• 1891 – Edith Stein, Polish nun and martyr; later canonized (d. 1942)
• 1891 – Fumimaro Konoe, Japanese soldier and politician, 39th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1945)
• 1892 – Gilda dalla Rizza, Italian soprano and actress (d. 1975)^[10]
• 1893 – Velvalee Dickinson, American spy (d. 1980)
• 1894 – Elisabeth of Romania, queen consort of Greece (d. 1956)
• 1896 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
• 1903 – Josephine Hutchinson, American actress (d. 1998)
• 1904 – Lester Dent, American journalist and author (d. 1959)
• 1904 – Ding Ling, Chinese author and educator (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Joe Cronin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1984)
• 1906 – John Murray, American playwright and producer (d. 1984)
• 1906 – Piero Taruffi, Italian race car driver and motorcycle racer (d. 1988)
• 1908 – Paul Engle, American novelist, poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1991)
• 1908 – Ann Petry, American novelist (d. 1997)^[11]
• 1910 – Robert Fitzgerald, American poet, critic, and translator (d. 1985)
• 1910 – Malcolm Renfrew, American chemist and academic (d. 2013)
• 1911 – Vijay Merchant, Indian cricketer (d. 1987)
• 1913 – Alice Chetwynd Ley, English author and educator (d. 2004)
• 1914 – John E. Hodge, African-American chemist (d. 1996)
• 1916 – Alice Childress, American actress and playwright (d. 1994)
• 1916 – Lock Martin, American actor (d. 1959)
• 1917 – Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer and manager (d. 2004)
• 1919 – Gilles Beaudoin, Canadian politician, 34th Mayor of Trois-Rivières (d. 2007)
• 1919 – Doris Miller, American chef and soldier (d. 1943)
• 1920 – Christopher Soames, English politician and diplomat, Governor of Southern Rhodesia (d. 1987)
• 1921 – Art Clokey, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor, created Gumby (d. 2010)
• 1921 – Jaroslav Drobný, Czech-English tennis player and ice hockey player (d. 2001)
• 1921 – Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scottish rugby player and journalist
• 1922 – William H. Sullivan, American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (d. 2013)
• 1923 – Jean Nidetch, American businesswoman, co-founded Weight Watchers (d. 2015)
• 1923 – Goody Petronelli, American boxer, trainer, and manager (d. 2012)
• 1924 – Leonidas Kyrkos, Greek politician (d. 2011)
• 1925 – Denis Lazure, Canadian psychiatrist and politician (d. 2008)
• 1928 – Al Held, American painter and academic (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Domna Samiou, Greek singer and musicologist (d. 2012)
• 1929 – Nappy Brown, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 2008)
• 1929 – Robert Coles, American psychologist, author, and academic
• 1929 – Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic journalist and academic (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Denis Brodeur, Canadian ice hockey player and photographer (d. 2013)
• 1930 – Milica Kacin Wohinz, Slovenian historian and author
• 1931 – Ole-Johan Dahl, Norwegian computer scientist and academic, co-developed Simula (d. 2002)
• 1932 – Dick Gregory, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2017)
• 1932 – Ned Jarrett, American race car driver and sportscaster
• 1932 – John Moffat, Danish physicist and academic
• 1933 – Guido Molinari, Canadian painter and art collector (d. 2004)
• 1934 – James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2012)
• 1934 – Richard Meier, American architect, designed the Getty Center and City Tower
• 1934 – Albert Shiryaev, Russian mathematician and academic
• 1934 – Oğuz Atay, Turkish engineer and author (d. 1977)
• 1935 – Don Howe, English footballer and manager (d. 2015)
• 1935 – Tony Kubek, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1935 – Sam Moore, American soul singer-songwriter (Sam & Dave)
• 1935 – Shivraj Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Defence
• 1935 – Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor and actor (d. 2007)
• 1937 – Paul Hawkins, Australian race car driver (d. 1969)
• 1937 – Robert Mangold, American painter
• 1941 – Michael Mansfield, English lawyer, academic, and republican
• 1942 – Melvin Franklin, American soul bass singer (The Temptations) (d. 1995)
• 1943 – Kostas Tsakonas, Greek actor (d. 2015)
• 1944 – Angela Rippon, English journalist and author
• 1945 – Aurore Clément, French actress
• 1946 – Drew Edmondson, American politician^[12]
• 1946 – Ashok Mankad, Indian cricketer (d. 2008)
• 1946 – Daryl Runswick, English bassist and composer
• 1947 – Chris Wallace, American journalist
• 1948 – John Engler, American businessman and politician, 46th Governor of Michigan
• 1948 – Rick Parfitt, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
• 1949 – Dave Lloyd, English cyclist and coach
• 1949 – Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan terrorist and murderer
• 1949 – Paul Went, English footballer and manager (d. 2017)
• 1950 – Susan Anton, American actress and model
• 1950 – Dave Freudenthal, American economist and politician, 31st Governor of Wyoming
• 1951 – Sally Little, South African-American golfer^[13]
• 1951 – Ed Royce, American businessman and politician
• 1951 – Norio Suzuki, Japanese golfer
• 1952 – Béla Csécsei, Hungarian educator and politician (d. 2012)
• 1952 – Roger Heath-Brown, English mathematician and theorist
• 1953 – Les Dennis, English comedian and actor
• 1953 – David Threlfall, English actor and director
• 1954 – Massimo Ghini, Italian actor
• 1954 – Michael Roe, American singer, songwriter, and record producer
• 1954 – Linval Thompson, Jamaican singer and producer
• 1955 – Einar Jan Aas, Norwegian footballer
• 1955 – Pat DiNizio, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
• 1955 – Ante Gotovina, Croatian general
• 1955 – Jane Siberry, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
• 1956 – Rafael Ábalos, Spanish author
• 1956 – Allan Evans, Scottish footballer
• 1956 – Lutz Haueisen, German cyclist
• 1956 – Catherine Holmes, Australian judge
• 1956 – Gerti Schanderl, German figure skater
• 1956 – David Vanian, English singer-songwriter
• 1957 – Clémentine Célarié, French actress, singer, and director
• 1957 – Serge Clerc, French comic book artist and illustrator
• 1957 – Mike Dowler, Welsh football goalkeeper
• 1957 – Annik Honoré, Belgian journalist and music promoter (d. 2014)
• 1957 – William F. Laurance, Australian biologist
• 1958 – Steve Austria, American lawyer and politician
• 1958 – Maria de Fátima Silva de Sequeira Dias, Portuguese historian, author, and academic (d. 2013)
• 1958 – Jeff Keith, American rock singer-songwriter (Tesla)
• 1958 – Bryn Merrick, Welsh bass player (d. 2015)
• 1959 – Anna Escobedo Cabral, American lawyer and politician, 42nd Treasurer of the United States
• 1960 – Steve Lowery, American golfer
• 1960 – Carlo Perrone, Italian footballer and manager
• 1961 – Chendo, Spanish footballer
• 1962 – Carlos Bernard, American actor and director
• 1962 – Chris Botti, American trumpet player and composer
• 1962 – John Coleman, English footballer and manager
• 1962 – Branko Crvenkovski, Macedonian engineer and politician, 3rd President of the Republic of Macedonia
• 1962 – Deborah Foreman, American actress and photographer
• 1962 – Mads Eriksen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
• 1963 – Raimond Aumann, German footballer
• 1963 – Hideki Fujisawa, Japanese composer
• 1963 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese animator and screenwriter (d. 2010)
• 1963 – Dave Legeno, English actor and mixed martial artist (d. 2014)
• 1963 – Alan McDonald, Irish footballer and manager (d. 2012)
• 1963 – Luis Polonia, Dominican baseball player
• 1965 – Dan Abnett, English author
• 1965 – J. J. Daigneault, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1965 – Scott O'Grady, American captain and pilot
• 1966 – Jonathan Crombie, Canadian actor and voice over artist (d. 2015)
• 1966 – Wim Jonk, Dutch footballer
• 1966 – Brian Kennedy, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1966 – Brenda Romero, American game designer
• 1967 – Becky Iverson, American golfer
• 1968 – Bill Auberlen, American race car driver
• 1968 – Paul Harragon, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
• 1968 – Hugh Jackman, Australian actor, singer, and producer
• 1968 – Leon Lett, American football player
• 1969 – Martie Maguire, American singer-songwriter, violinist, and producer
• 1969 – Željko Milinovič, Slovenian footballer
• 1969 – Dwayne Roloson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1969 – José Valentín, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 1970 – Kirk Cameron, American actor, screenwriter, and Christian evangelical/anti-evolution activist
• 1970 – Patrick Musimu, Belgian diver and physiotherapist (d. 2011)
• 1970 – Tanyon Sturtze, American baseball player
• 1970 – Charlie Ward, American basketball player and coach
• 1971 – Tony Fiore, American baseball player
• 1971 – Steve Johnston, Australian motorcycle racer
• 1971 – Bronzell Miller, American football player and actor (d. 2013)
• 1972 – Neriah Davis, American model and actress
• 1972 – Juan Manuel Silva, Argentinian race car driver
• 1972 – Tom Van Mol, Belgian footballer
• 1973 – Lesli Brea, Dominican baseball player
• 1973 – Martin Corry, English rugby player
• 1974 – Stephen Lee, English snooker player
• 1975 – Susana Félix, Portuguese singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
• 1975 – Marion Jones, American basketball player and runner
• 1976 – Simon Bridges, New Zealand politician
• 1977 – Cristie Kerr, American golfer
• 1977 – Bode Miller, American skier
• 1977 – Javier Toyo, Venezuelan footballer
• 1978 – Stefan Binder, German footballer
• 1978 – Baden Cooke, Australian cyclist
• 1979 – Steven Agnew, Northern Irish politician
• 1979 – Steve Borthwick, English rugby player
• 1979 – Jordan Pundik, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1980 – Ledley King, English footballer
• 1981 – Tom Guiry, American actor
• 1981 – Brian Kerr, Scottish football player and manager
• 1981 – Giuseppe Lanzone, American rower
• 1981 – Conrad Smith, New Zealand rugby player
• 1981 – Sun Tiantian, Chinese tennis player
• 1983 – Alex Brosque, Australian footballer
• 1983 – Carlton Cole, English footballer
• 1983 – Mariko Yamamoto, Japanese cricketer
• 1985 – Michelle Carter, American shot putter
• 1985 – Mike Green, Canadian hockey player
• 1985 – Anna Iljuštšenko, Estonian high jumper
• 1986 – Ioannis Maniatis, Greek footballer
• 1986 – Sergio Peter, German footballer
• 1986 – Tyler Blackburn, American actor^[14]
• 1987 – Marvin Ogunjimi, Belgian footballer
• 1988 – Sam Whitelock, New Zealand rugby player
• 1988 – Calum Scott, British singer^[15]
• 1989 – Anna Ohmiya, Japanese curler
• 1990 – Henri Lansbury, English footballer
• 1991 – Nicolao Dumitru, Italian footballer
• 1992 – Josh Hutcherson, American actor and producer
• 1994 – Alex Katz, American baseball player
• 1994 – Sean Monahan, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1994 – Olivia Smoliga, American swimmer
• 1996 – James Graham, British singer
• 1997 – Curtis Scott, Australian rugby league player
• 2002 – Iris Apatow, American actress
• 2004 – Darci Lynne, American ventriloquist^[16]

*****

Deaths

• 322 BC – Demosthenes, Athenian statesman, (b. 384 BC)
• 638 – Honorius I, pope of the Catholic Church
• 642 – John IV, pope of the Catholic Church
• 884 – Tsunesada, Japanese prince (b. 825)
• 1095 – Leopold II, margrave of Austria (b. 1050)
• 1152 – Adolf III of Berg, German nobleman (b. 1080)
• 1176 – William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, English politician (b. 1109)
• 1320 – Michael IX Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1277)
• 1328 – Clementia of Hungary, queen consort of France and Navarre (b. 1293)
• 1448 – Zhu Quan, Chinese prince, historian and playwright (b. 1378)
• 1491 – Fritz Herlen, German painter (b. 1449)
• 1492 – Piero della Francesca, Italian mathematician and painter (b. 1415)
• 1565 – Jean Ribault, French-American lieutenant and navigator (b. 1520)
• 1576 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1527)
• 1590 – Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (b. 1543)
• 1600 – Luis de Molina, Spanish priest and philosopher (b. 1535)
• 1601 – Nicholas Brend, English landowner (b. 1560)
• 1632 – Kutsuki Mototsuna, Japanese commander (b. 1549)
• 1646 – François de Bassompierre, French general and courtier (b. 1579)
• 1654 – Carel Fabritius, Dutch painter (b. 1622)
• 1678 – Edmund Berry Godfrey, English lawyer and judge (b. 1621)
• 1679 – William Gurnall, English minister, theologian, and author (b. 1617)
• 1685 – Christoph Ignaz Abele, Austrian lawyer and jurist (b. 1628)
• 1730 – Frederick IV, king of Denmark and Norway (b. 1671)
• 1758 – Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, Irish field marshal and politician (b. 1680)
• 1812 – Juan José Castelli, Argentinian lawyer and politician (b. 1764)
• 1845 – Elizabeth Fry, English nurse and philanthropist (b. 1780)
• 1858 – Hiroshige, Japanese painter (b. 1797)
• 1870 – Robert E. Lee, American general (b. 1807)
• 1875 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (b. 1827)
• 1896 – Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish lawyer and politician, 9th Council President of Denmark (b. 1817)
• 1898 – Calvin Fairbank, American minister and activist (b. 1816)
• 1914 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (b. 1838)
• 1915 – Edith Cavell, English nurse (b. 1865)
• 1923 – Bunny Lucas, English cricketer (b. 1857)
• 1924 – Anatole France, French journalist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
• 1926 – Edwin Abbott Abbott, English theologian and author (b. 1838)
• 1933 – John Lister, English philanthropist and politician (b. 1847)
• 1940 – Tom Mix, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1880)
• 1946 – Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883)
• 1948 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English psychologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1885)
• 1954 – George Welch, American soldier and pilot (b. 1918)
• 1956 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer and painter (b. 1872)
• 1957 – Arie de Jong, Indonesian-Dutch linguist and physician (b. 1865)
• 1958 – Gordon Griffith, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1907)
• 1960 – Inejiro Asanuma, Japanese lawyer and politician (b. 1898)
• 1965 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• 1967 – Ram Manohar Lohia, Indian activist and politician (b. 1910)
• 1969 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and actress (b. 1912)
• 1969 – Serge Poliakoff, Russian-French painter and academic (b. 1906)
• 1969 – Julius Saaristo, Finnish javelin thrower and soldier (b. 1891)
• 1970 – Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky, Russian-American illustrator and painter (b. 1891)
• 1970 – Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet and academic (b. 1930)
• 1971 – Dean Acheson, American lawyer and politician, 51st United States Secretary of State (b. 1893)
• 1971 – Gene Vincent, American musician (b. 1935)
• 1972 – Robert Le Vigan, French-Argentinian actor and politician (b. 1900)
• 1973 – Peter Aufschnaiter, Austrian mountaineer, geographer, and cartographer (b. 1899)
• 1978 – Nancy Spungen, American figure of the 1970s punk rock scene (b. 1958)
• 1984 – Anthony Berry, English politician (b. 1925)
• 1985 – Johnny Olson, American radio host and game show announcer (b. 1910)
• 1985 – Ricky Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1953)
• 1987 – Alf Landon, American lieutenant and politician, 26th Governor of Kansas (b. 1887)
• 1987 – Fahri Korutürk, Turkish commander and politician, 6th President of Turkey (b. 1903)
• 1988 – Ruth Manning-Sanders, Welsh-English poet and author (b. 1886)
• 1988 – Coby Whitmore, American painter and illustrator (b. 1913)
• 1989 – Jay Ward, American animator, producer, and screenwriter, founded Jay Ward Productions (b. 1920)
• 1990 – Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (b. 1926)
• 1990 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian physician, mountaineer, and author (b. 1899)
• 1991 – Sheila Florance, Australian actress (b. 1916)
• 1991 – Arkady Strugatsky, Russian author and translator (b. 1925)
• 1991 – Regis Toomey, American actor (b. 1898)
• 1993 – Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902)
• 1994 – Gérald Godin, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1938)
• 1996 – René Lacoste, French tennis player and fashion designer, co-founded Lacoste (b. 1904)
• 1996 – Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (b. 1911)
• 1997 – John Denver, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1943)
• 1998 – Mario Beaulieu, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1930)
• 1998 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (b. 1976)
• 1999 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and coach (b. 1936)
• 1999 – Robert Marsden Hope, Australian lawyer and judge (b. 1919)
• 2001 – Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, English academic and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1907)
• 2001 – Hikmet Şimşek, Turkish conductor (b. 1924)
• 2001 – Richard Buckle, Ballet critic and writer (b. 1916)
• 2002 – Ray Conniff, American bandleader and composer (b. 1916)
• 2002 – Audrey Mestre, French biologist and diver (b. 1974)
• 2003 – Jim Cairns, Australian economist and politician, 4th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Bill Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931)
• 2005 – C. Delores Tucker, American activist and politician (b. 1927)
• 2006 – Angelika Machinek, German glider pilot (b. 1956)^[17]
• 2006. – Eugène Martin, French race car driver (b. 1915)
• 2006 – Gillo Pontecorvo, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1919)
• 2007 – Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect, designed the Nakagin Capsule Tower (b. 1934)
• 2008 – Karl Chircop, Maltese physician and politician (b. 1965)
• 2009 – Dickie Peterson American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1948)
• 2009 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (b. 1974)
• 2010 – Austin Ardill, Northern Irish soldier and politician (b. 1917)
• 2010 – Woody Peoples, American football player (b. 1943)
• 2010 – Belva Plain, American author (b. 1919)
• 2011 – Patricia Breslin, American actress (b. 1931)
• 2011 – Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist, created the C programming language (b. 1941)
• 2012 – James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (b. 1910)
• 2012 – Norm Grabowski, American hot rod builder and actor (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Sukhdev Singh Kang, Indian judge and politician, 14th Governor of Kerala (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Torkom Manoogian, Iraqi-Armenian patriarch (b. 1919)
• 2012 – Erik Moseholm, Danish bassist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Břetislav Pojar, Czech animator, director, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
• 2013 – George Herbig, American astronomer and academic (b. 1920)
• 2013 – Oscar Hijuelos, American author and academic (b. 1951)
• 2013 – Hans Wilhelm Longva, Norwegian diplomat (b. 1942)
• 2013 – Malcolm Renfrew, American chemist and academic (b. 1910)
• 2014 – Ali Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1933)
• 2014 – Graham Miles, English snooker player (b. 1941)
• 2014 – Roberto Telch, Argentinian footballer and coach (b. 1943)
• 2015 – Abdallah Kigoda, Tanzanian politician, 8th Tanzanian Minister of Industry and Trade (b. 1953)
• 2015 – Joan Leslie, American actress, dancer, and vaudevillian (b. 1925)

*****

Columbus Day

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492 (Julian Calendar; it would have been October 21, 1492 on the Gregorian Proleptic Calendar, which extends the Gregorian Calendar to dates prior to its adoption in 1582). Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the The Far East only to land at the New World.  Columbus' first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships Santa Maria, Nina, and La Pinta took approximately three months. Columbus and his crew's arrival to the New World initiated the Columbian Exchange which introduced the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the new world and the old. 

The landing is celebrated as "Columbus Day" in the United States but the name varies on the international spectrum. In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as "Dia de la Raza" or (Day of the Race). 

*****

Indigenous People's Day

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors the Native Americans and commemorates their shared history and culture. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. It began as a counter-celebration held on the same day as the United States federal holiday of Columbus Day, which honors Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.  Some people now reject celebrating him, saying that he represents the violent history of the colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

Indigenous Peoples' Day was begun in 1989 in South Dakota, where Lynn Hart and Governor Mickelson backed a resolution to celebrate Native American day on the second Monday of October, marking the beginning of the year of reconciliation in 1990. It was instituted in Berkeley, California, in 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Two years later, Santa Cruz, California, instituted the holiday, and in the 2010s, various other cities and states took it up.

It is similar to Native American Day, observed in September in California and Tennessee.

*****

Hafez Day (Iran)

*****

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎), known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ Ḥāfeẓ 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper') and as "Hafiz" (b. 1315, Shiraz, Fars - d. Shiraz, Fars, Timurid Empire (present day Iran) 1390), was a Persian poet who lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy.  His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are often found in the homes of people in the Persian-speaking world, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have become the subjects of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author.

Hafez is best known for his poems that can be described as antinomian -- any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so -- and with the medieval use of the term "theosophical".  The term "theosophy" in the 13th and 14th centuries was used to indicate mystical work by authors inspired by the holy books. Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poety, or ghazals, that is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems. 

Themes of Hafez's ghazals include the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals he deals with love, wine and taverns, all presenting ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover speaking of divine love.  His influence on Persian speakers appears in "Hafez readings" (fāl-e hāfez, Persian: فال حافظ‎) and in the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy. His tomb in Shiraz, Iran, is visited often. Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages.

Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian home. October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran. 

*****
1

Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.

*****
2

I wish I could show you...the astonishing light of your own being.

*****
3

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a
Stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.

*****
4

I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure Soul. Love has befriended me so completely it has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.

*****
5

I once asked a bird, how is it that you fly in this gravity of darkness? She responded, 'love lifts me.'

*****
6

Your heart and my heart are very, very old friends.

*****
7

It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day

It will begin to happen
Again on earth -

That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,

And women and women
Who give each other
Light,

Often will get down on their knees

And while so tenderly
Holding their lover's hand,

With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,

My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more kind?

*****
8

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:
What is God?

If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,

If you think that the Sun and the Ocean
Can pass through that tiny opening Called the mouth,

O someone should start laughing!
Someone should start wildly laughing now!

*****
9

Be kind to your sleeping heart. Take it out into the vast fields of light...And let it breathe.

*****
10

What do sad people have in common? It seems they have all built a shrine to the past and often go there and do a strange wail and worship. What is the beginning of Happiness? It is to stop being so religious like that.

*****
11

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.

*****
12

This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you.

*****
13

I am in love with every church
And mosque
And temple
And any kind of shrine
Because I know it is there
That people say the different names
Of the One God.

*****
14

What Happens

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world

To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved
Will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions -

Like Hafiz.

*****
15

You yourself are your own obstacle, rise above yourself.

*****
16

What we speak becomes the house we live in.

*****
17

When all your desires are distilled; You will cast just two votes: To love more, And be happy.

*****
18

Admit something.

Everyone you see, you say to them
"Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud:
Otherwise,
Someone would call the police.

Still, though, think about this,
This great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
That is always saying,

With that sweet moon
Language

What every other eye in this world
Is dying to
Hear?

*****
19

The heart is a thousand stringed instrument that can only be tuned with love.

*****
20

Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings. Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart.

*****
21

There was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
“Nothing, I just helped him cry.²”
“Even after all this time
the sun never says to the earth
“You owe me”
Look what happens with a love like that,
It lights the whole sky..”

*****
22

An awake heart is like a sky that pours light.

*****
23

Carry your heart through this world like a life-giving sun.

*****
24

Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative business. Why not find a better job.

*****
25

The
Earth would die
If the Sun stopped kissing her

*****
26

I am happy even before I have a reason.

*****
27

The sun will stand as your best man
And whistle
When you have found the courage
To marry forgiveness

When you have found the courage
to marry
Love.

*****
28

The small man builds cages for everyone he knows
While the sage, who has to duck his head when the Moon is low
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the beautiful rowdy prisoners

*****
29

Start seeing everything as God, but keep it a secret.

*****
30

Do not surrender your grief so quickly 
Let it cut more deeply 
Let it ferment and season you 
As few human or divine ingredients can 

Something is missing in my heart tonight 
That has made my eyes so soft 
And my voice so tender 
And my need of God so absolutely clear.

*****
31

Listen; this world is the lunatic's sphere ,
Do not always agree that it is real,
Even with my feet upon it 
And the postman knowing my door
My address is somewhere else.

*****
32

Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred... Now is the time for you to deeply compute the impossibility that there is anything but grace.

*****
33

I long for You so much
I follow barefoot Your frozen tracks
That are high in the mountains
That I know are years old.
I long for You so much
I have even begun to travel
Where I have never been before.

*****
34

Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly and wants to rip to shreds all your erroneous notions of the truth that make you fight within yourself, dear one, and with others, causing the world to weep on too many fine days... The Beloved sometimes wants to do us a great favor: Hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.

*****
35

Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.

*****
36

We have come into this exquisite world to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom and light!

*****
37

The great religions are the ships, Poets the life boats. Every sane person I know has jumped overboard.

*****
38

One regret dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough.

*****
39

We are People who need to love, because Love is the soul's life, Love is simply creation's greatest joy.

*****
40

Sing because this is a food our starving world needs. Laugh because that is the purest sound.

*****
41

I should not make any promises right now,
But I know if you
Pray
Somewhere in this world -
Something good will happen.

*****
42

For I have learned that every heart will get
What it prays for
Most.

*****
43

Let tenderness pour from your eyes, the way sun gazes warmly on earth.

*****
44

Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude for life.

*****
45

I caught the happy virus last night
When I was out singing beneath the stars.
It is remarkably contagious -
So kiss me.

*****
46

Now is the time to understand 
That all your ideas of right and wrong 
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside 
When you finally live 
With veracity 
And love.

*****
47

Let's get loose with Compassion. Let us drown in the delicious ambience of Love.

*****
48

Oh, you who are trying to learn the marvel of Love through the copy book of reason, I'm very much afraid that you will never really see the point.

*****
49

Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins that may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days like a broken man behind a farting camel.

*****
50

People say that the soul, on hearing the song of creation, entered the body, but in reality the soul itself was the song.

*****
51

When you can make others laugh with jokes that belittle no one and your words always unite, Hafiz will vote for you to be God.

*****
52

It is written on the gate of heaven: Nothing in existence is more powerful than destiny. And destiny brought you here, to this page, which is part of your ticket - as all things are - to return to God.

*****
53

What is this precious love and laughter budding in our hearts? It is the glorious sound of a soul waking up!

*****
54

The beauty of You delights me. The sight of You amazes me. For the Pearl does this... and the Ocean does that.

*****
55

Remember for just one minute of the day, it would be best to try looking upon yourself more as God does, for She knows your true royal nature.

*****
56

God disguised as myriad things, and playing a game of tag has kissed you and said, "You're it. I mean you're really it. Now it does not matter what you believe or feel. For something wonderful, something major-league wonderful, is someday going to happen."

*****
57

For a day, just for one day, talk about that which disturbs no one and bring some peace into those beautiful eyes.

*****
58

Laugh because that is the purest sound.

*****
59

Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred.

*****
60

Everyone Is God speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to Him?

*****
61

There is
A madman inside of you
Who is always running for office

*****
62

Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man.

*****
63

Happiness is right in front of you.

*****
64

Think of suffering as being washed.

*****
65

*****
66

Light will someday split you open.

*****
67

The only friends who are free from cares are the goblet of wine and a book. Give me wine...that I may for a time forget the cares of the world.

*****
68

I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. 

*****
69

This sky where we live is no place to lose your wings so love, love, love.

*****
70

Grieve not; though the journey of life be bitter, and the end unseen, there is no road which does not lead to an end.

*****
71

I rarely let the word NO escape from my mouth, because it is so plain to my soul that God has shouted, Yes! Yes! Yes! To every luminous movement in existence.

*****
72

It is not easy to stop thinking ill of others.Usually one must enter into a friendship with a person who has accomplished that great feat himself.Then something might start to rub off on you of that true elegance.

*****

Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎), known by his pen name Hafez (حافظ Ḥāfeẓ 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1315-1390) and as "Hafiz",^[1] was a Persian poet^[2][3] who "lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy".^[4] His collected works are regarded^{[by whom?]} as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are often found in the homes of people in the Persian-speaking world, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have become the subjects of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author.^[5][6]

Hafez is best known for his poems that can be described as "antinomian"^[7] and with the medieval use of the term "theosophical"; the term "theosophy" in the 13th and 14th centuries was used to indicate mystical work by "authors only inspired by the holy books" (as distinguished from theology). Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry, or ghazals, that is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems.

Themes of his ghazals include the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals he deals with love, wine and taverns, all presenting ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover^[8] speaking of divine love.^{[9][self-published source]} His influence on Persian speakers appears in "Hafez readings" (fāl-e hāfez, Persian: فال حافظ‎) and in the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy. His tomb is visited often. Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages.

Hafez was born in Shiraz, Iran. His parents were from Kazerun, Fars Province. Despite his profound effect on Persian life and culture and his enduring popularity and influence, few details of his life are known. Accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes. Early tazkiras (biographical sketches) mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable.^[10] At an early age, he memorized the Quran and was given the title of Hafez, which he later used as his pen name.^{[11][self-published source][12]} The preface of his Divān, in which his early life is discussed, was written by an unknown contemporary whose name may have been Moḥammad Golandām.^[13] Two of the most highly regarded modern editions of Hafez's Divān are compiled by Moḥammad Ghazvini and Qāsem Ḡani (495 ghazals) and by Parviz Natel-Khanlari (486 ghazals).^[14][15]

Modern scholars generally agree that Hafez was born either in 1315 or 1317. According to an account by Jami, Hafez died in 1390.^[13][16] Hafez was supported by patronage from several successive local regimes: Shah Abu Ishaq, who came to power while Hafez was in his teens; Timur at the end of his life; and even the strict ruler Shah Mubariz ud-Din Muhammad (Mubariz Muzaffar). Though his work flourished most under the 27-year rule of Jalal ud-Din Shah Shuja (Shah Shuja),^[17] it is claimed Hāfez briefly fell out of favor with Shah Shuja for mocking inferior poets (Shah Shuja wrote poetry himself and may have taken the comments personally), forcing Hāfez to flee from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd, but no historical evidence is available.^[17] He is said to have been in Timur's court, as Hafez wrote a ghazal whose verse says if this Turk accept his homage:

For the black mole on her cheek
I would give the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara

Timur upbraided him for this verse and said; "By the blows of my well tempered sword I have conquered the greater part of the world to enlarge Samarkand and Bukhara, my capitals and residences; and you pitiful creature would exchange these two cities for a mole". Hafez replied "O Sovereign of the world; "It is by the state of similar generosity that I have been reduced, as you see my present state of poverty." It is reported that the King was amazed by the witty answer, and the poet departed with magnificent gifts.^[18]

His mausoleum, Hāfezieh, is located in the Musalla Gardens of Shiraz.

Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hafez after his death. It is said that by listening to his father's recitations, Hafez had accomplished the task of learning the Quran by heart at an early age (that is the meaning of the word Hafez). At the same time, he is said to have known by heart the works of Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi), Saadi, Farid ud-Din, and Nizami.

According to one tradition, before meeting his self-chosen Sufi master Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Hafez had been working in a bakery, delivering bread to a wealthy quarter of the town. There, he first saw Shakh-e Nabat, a woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed. Ravished by her beauty but knowing that his love for her would not be requited, he allegedly held his first mystic vigil in his desire to realize this union. Still, he encountered a being of surpassing beauty who identified himself as an angel, and his further attempts at union became mystic; a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine. A Western parallel is that of Dante and Beatrice.

At 60, he is said to have begun a Chilla-nashini, a 40-day-and-night vigil by sitting in a circle that he had drawn for himself. On the 40th day, he once again met with Zayn al-Attar on what is known to be their fortieth anniversary and was offered a cup of wine. It was there where he is said to have attained "Cosmic Consciousness". He hints at this episode in one of his verses in which he advises the reader to attain "clarity of wine" by letting it "sit for 40 days".

Although he hardly ever traveled outside Shiraz, in one tale, Tamerlane (Timur) angrily summoned Hafez to account for one of his verses:

If that Shirazi Turk would take my heart in hand
I would remit Samarkand and Bukhārā for her black mole.

Samarkand was Tamerlane's capital and Bokhara was the kingdom's finest city. "With the blows of my lustrous sword", Timur complained, "I have subjugated most of the habitable globe... to embellish Samarkand and Bokhara, the seats of my government; and you would sell them for the black mole of some girl in Shiraz!"

Hafez, the tale goes, bowed deeply and replied, "Alas, O Prince, it is this prodigality which is the cause of the misery in which you find me". So surprised and pleased was Timur with this response that he dismissed Hafez with handsome gifts.^[17]

Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad to India.^[17]

His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones. It would leave a mark on such Western writers as Thoreau, Goethe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (the last referred to him as "a poet's poet").^{[citation needed]}. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his character Sherlock Holmes state that "there is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world" (in A Case of Identity). Friedrich Engels mentioned him in an 1853 letter to Karl Marx:

It is, by the way, rather pleasing to read dissolute old Hafiz in the original language, which sounds quite passable and, in his grammar, old Sir William Jones likes to cite as examples dubious Persian jokes, subsequently translated into Greek verse in his Commentariis poeseos asiaticae, because even in Latin they seem to him too obscene. These commentaries, Jones’ Works, Vol. II, De Poesi erotica, will amuse you. Persian prose, on the other hand, is deadly dull. E.g. the Rauzât-us-safâ by the noble Mirkhond, who recounts the Persian epic in very flowery but vacuous language. Of Alexander the Great, he says that the name Iskander, in the Ionian language, is Akshid Rus (like Iskander, a corrupt version of Alexandros); it means much the same as filusuf, which derives from fila, love, and sufa, wisdom, ‘Iskander’ thus being synonymous with ‘friend of wisdom’.^[19]

Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian home.^[4] In fact, October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran.^[20]

Twenty years after his death, a tomb, the Hafezieh, was erected to honor Hafez in the Musalla Gardens in Shiraz. The current mausoleum was designed by André Godard, a French archeologist and architect, in the late 1930s, and the tomb is raised up on a dais amidst rose gardens, water channels, and orange trees. Inside, Hafez's alabaster sarcophagus bears the inscription of two of his poems.^{[citation needed]} His tomb is "crowded with devotees" who visit the site and the atmosphere is "festive" with visitors singing and reciting their favorite Hafez poems.^[4]

Many Iranians use Divan of Hafez for fortune telling. Iranian families usually have a Divan of Hafez in their house, and when they get together during the Nowruz or Yaldā holidays, they open the Divan to a random page and read the poem on it, which they believe to be an indication of things that will happen in the future.^[21]

There is no definitive version of his collected works (or Dīvān); editions vary from 573 to 994 poems. In Iran and Afghanistan, his collected works have come to be used as an aid to popular divination.^[22] Only since the 1940s has a sustained scholarly attempt (by Mas'ud Farzad, Qasim Ghani and others in Iran) been made to authenticate his work and to remove errors introduced by later copyists and censors. However, the reliability of such work has been questioned,^[23] and in the words of Hāfez scholar Iraj Bashiri, "there remains little hope from there (i.e.: Iran) for an authenticated diwan".^[24] Even libraries in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia carry his Diwan.^[14]

Many Iranian composers have composed pieces inspired by or based upon Hafez's poems. Among Iranian singers, Mohsen Namjoo composed music and vocals on several poems such as Zolf, Del Miravad, Nameh, and others. Hayedeh performed the song "Padeshah-e Khooban", with music by Farid Zoland. Mohammad-Reza Shajarian performed the song "Del Miravad Ze Dastam", with music by Parviz Meshkatian. The Ottoman composer Buhurizade Mustafa Itri composed his magnum opus Neva Kâr based upon one of Hafez's poems. The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski composed The Love Songs of Hafiz based upon a German translation of Hafez poems.

Many Afghan Singers, including Ahmad Zahir and Sarban, have composed songs such as "Ay Padeshah-e Khooban", "Gar-Zulfe Parayshanat"

The question of whether his work is to be interpreted literally, mystically, or both has been a source of contention among western scholars.^[25] On the one hand, some of his early readers such as William Jones saw in him a conventional lyricist similar to European love poets such as Petrarch.^[26] Others scholars such as Henry Wilberforce Clarke saw him as purely a poet of didactic, ecstatic mysticism in the manner of Rumi, a view that a minority of twentieth century critics and literary historians have come to challenge.^[27]

This confusion stems from the fact that, early in Persian literary history, the poetic vocabulary was usurped by mystics, who believed that the ineffable could be better approached in poetry than in prose. In composing poems of mystic content, they imbued every word and image with mystical undertones, causing mysticism and lyricism to converge into a single tradition. As a result, no fourteenth-century Persian poet could write a lyrical poem without having a flavor of mysticism forced on it by the poetic vocabulary itself.^[28][29] While some poets, such as Ubayd Zakani, attempted to distance themselves from this fused mystical-lyrical tradition by writing satires, Hafez embraced the fusion and thrived on it. Wheeler Thackston has said of this that Hafez "sang a rare blend of human and mystic love so balanced... that it is impossible to separate one from the other".^[30]

For reason such as that, the history of the translation of Hāfez is fraught with complications, and few translations into western languages have been wholly successful.

One of the figurative gestures for which he is most famous (and which is among the most difficult to translate) is īhām or artful punning. Thus, a word such as gowhar, which could mean both "essence, truth" and "pearl," would take on both meanings at once as in a phrase such as "a pearl/essential truth outside the shell of superficial existence".

Hafez often took advantage of the aforementioned lack of distinction between lyrical, mystical, and panegyric writing by using highly intellectualized, elaborate metaphors and images to suggest multiple possible meanings. For example, a couplet from one of Hafez's poems reads:^{[citation needed]}

Last night, from the cypress branch, the nightingale sang,
In Old Persian tones, the lesson of spiritual stations.

The cypress tree is a symbol both of the beloved and of a regal presence; the nightingale and birdsong evoke the traditional setting for human love. The "lessons of spiritual stations" suggest, obviously, a mystical undertone as well (though the word for "spiritual" could also be translated as "intrinsically meaningful"). Therefore, the words could signify at once a prince addressing his devoted followers, a lover courting a beloved, and the reception of spiritual wisdom.^[31]

Though Hafez is well known for his poetry, he is less commonly recognized for his intellectual and political contributions.^[32] A defining feature of Hafez' poetry is its ironic tone and the theme of hypocrisy, widely believed to be a critique of the religious and ruling establishments of the time.^[33][34] Persian satire developed during the 14th century, within the courts of the Mongol Period. In this period, Hafez and other notable early satirists, such as Ubayd Zakani, produced a body of work that has since become a template for the use of satire as a political device. Many of his critiques are believed to be targeted at the rule of Amir Mobarez Al-Din Mohammad, specifically, towards the disintegration of important public and private institutions. He was a Sufi Muslim.^[33][34][35]

His work, particularly his imaginative references to monasteries, convents, Shahneh, and muhtasib, ignored the religious taboos of his period, and he found humor in some of his society's religious doctrines.^[34][35] Employing humor polemically has since become a common practice in Iranian public discourse and satire is now perhaps the de facto language of Iranian social commentary.^[34]

A standard modern edition in English of Hafez' poems is Faces of Love (2012) translated by Dick Davis for Penguin Classics.^[36]

Peter Avery translated a complete edition of Hafiz in English, The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz, published in 2007.^[37] It has been awarded Iran's Farabi prize.^[38] Avery's translations are published with notes explaining allusions in the text and filling in what the poets would have expected their readers to know.^[39] An abridged version exists, titled Hafiz of Shiraz: Thirty Poems: An Introduction to the Sufi Master.

'*****

Ḥāfeẓ, also spelled Ḥāfiz, in full Moḥammad Shams al-Dīn Ḥāfeẓ, (born 1325/26, Shīrāz, Iran—died 1389/90, Shīrāz), one of the finest lyric poets of Persia.

Ḥāfeẓ received a classical religious education, lectured on Qurʾānic and other theological subjects (“Ḥāfeẓ” designates one who has learned the Qurʾān by heart), and wrote commentaries on religious classics. As a court poet, he enjoyed the patronage of several rulers of Shīrāz.

About 1368–69 Ḥāfeẓ fell out of favour at the court and did not regain his position until 20 years later, just before his death. In his poetry there are many echoes of historical events as well as biographical descriptions and details of life in Shīrāz. One of the guiding principles of his life was Sufism, the Islamic mystical movement that demanded of its adherents complete devotion to the pursuit of union with the ultimate reality.

Ḥāfeẓ’s principal verse form, one that he brought to a perfection never achieved before or since, was the ghazal, a lyric poem of 6 to 15 couplets linked by unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas. Traditionally the ghazal had dealt with love and wine, motifs that, in their association with ecstasy and freedom from restraint, lent themselves naturally to the expression of Sufi ideas. Ḥāfeẓ’s achievement was to give these conventional subjects a freshness and subtlety that completely relieves his poetry of tedious formalism. An important innovation credited to Ḥāfeẓ was the use of the ghazal instead of the qasida (ode) in panegyrics. Ḥāfeẓ also reduced the panegyric element of his poems to a mere one or two lines, leaving the remainder of the poem for his ideas. The extraordinary popularity of Ḥāfeẓ’s poetry in all Persian-speaking lands stems from his simple and often colloquial though musical language, free from artificial virtuosity, and his unaffected use of homely images and proverbial expressions. Above all, his poetry is characterized by love of humanity, contempt for hypocrisy and mediocrity, and an ability to universalize everyday experience and to relate it to the mystic’s unending search for union with God. His appeal in the West is indicated by the numerous translations of his poems. Ḥāfeẓ is most famous for his Dīvān; among the many partial English translations of this work are those by Gertrude Bell and H. Wilberforce Clarke.

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