4th November 1979: Iran hostage crisis begins when students storm the American Embassy in Tehran

The origins of the crisis lay in the declining relationship between the United States and Iran as a result of the rule of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. In 1953 the American CIA joined with MI6 from Britain to orchestrate a coup that would install the Shah as ruler of Iran. The aim was to protect British and American oil interests in the region. Although the coup was successful, many Iranians opposed the Shah’s repressive rule and found a leader in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini under whose guidance the Shah was overthrown in July 1979. Three months later, on 22 October, the Shah was granted entry to the United States to access medical treatment for lymphoma. Although President Jimmy Carter was initially reluctant to grant entry to the Shah, he eventually did so on humanitarian grounds. The political repercussions of Carter’s apparent sheltering of the Shah were huge. Khomeini stirred up anti-American feeling by referring to the USA as the ‘Great Satan’ and began hinting that the CIA was plotting another coup to return the Shah to power. Shortly after the Shah landed in New York on 4 November, a student demonstration outside the gates of the American Embassy in Tehran stormed the building. The students seized 66 hostages, 14 of whom were released before the end of the crisis. The other 52 hostages were held for 444 days. They were set free shortly after Ronald Reagan concluded his inaugural address as the new President of the USA on 20 January 1981.