Today coincides with the 8th day of the lunar month of Rabi' Thani, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hasan al-Askari (Peace be upon him), the 11th Shia Imam. Imam Hassan al-Askari was born in Madina,on 8th day of the month of Rabi Thani, in the year 232 A.H. He was called al-Askari in connection with the district of Askar in the city of Samarra in which he (the Imam) and his father, Imam Ali un-Naqi al-Hadi (AS) were imprisoned by the Abbasid caliphs.
Imam Hasan al-Askari (PBUH) was 11th in the line of the 12 Successors so explicitly spelled out by the Prophet in several hadith. That was the real reason of despair for the caliph, who murdered the Imam in the prime of his youth, since the Prophet had made it clear that his 12th descendant will rise as Qa'em al-Mahdi (AS) to cleanse the world of all vestiges of oppression and corruption and to establish the global government of peace, prosperity, and justice.