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1850 Martyrdom of the Báb
On July 9 in Tabriz, Persia, the Báb (a title meaning the Gate), Forerunner and Prophet-Herald of the Bahá'í Faith, only thirty years old, was martyred. A Muslim regiment of 750 rifles shot him and Anis (tied to His chest) in front of 10,000 witnesses. This was after a Christian regiment -- whose commander did not want to kill the Báb -- fired and missed, cutting only the ropes that held both against the wall.
"The very moment the shots were fired a gale of exceptional violence arose and swept over the city. From noon till night a whirlwind of dust obscured the light of the sun, and blinded the eyes of the people. In Shíráz an “earthquake,” foreshadowed in no less weighty a Book than the Revelation of St. John, occurred in 1268 A.H. which threw the whole city into turmoil and wrought havoc amongst its people, a havoc that was greatly aggravated by the outbreak of cholera, by famine and other afflictions. In that same year no less than two hundred and fifty of the firing squad, that had replaced Sám Khán’s (Christian) regiment, met their death, together with their officers, in a terrible earthquake, while the remaining five hundred suffered, three years later, as a punishment for their mutiny, the same fate as that which their hands had inflicted upon the Báb. To insure that none of them had survived, they were riddled with a second volley, after which their bodies, pierced with spears and lances, were exposed to the gaze of the people of Tabríz. The prime instigator of the Báb’s death, the implacable Amír-Nizám, together with his brother, his chief accomplice, met their death within two years of that savage act." (Shoghi Effendi, "God Passes By")
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1850 was the first year $20 Gold Double Eagles were minted in the U.S., born of the need to make useful the greatest mass of gold ever discovered during the California Gold Rush. This precious metal bonanza had far-reaching effects on the development of the USA, as well as the world's coinage, just as the life of the Báb, cut short on that mid-summer day in Persia, had on the advancement of human civilization.