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Mohammad Mosaddeq elected Prime Minister
"All of Iran's misery, wretchedness, lawlessness, and corruption during the last fifty years has been caused by oil and the extortions of the oil company." – Radio Tehran, 1951 -
Period: to
Iranian Revolution
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Prime Minister Mosaddeq overthrown. Shah Pahlavi instated.
"I knew it, my people love me!" – Shah Pahlavi, 1953 -
Ayatollah Khomeini arrested for anti-Shah speech
"There is a tendency to say that Khomeini was just a nobody and by accident won this revolution. I don't think thats true, Khomeini began seriously fighting the Shah in 1962. And some of the speeches he made there a truly remarkable in terms of their audacity, he’s a very audacious man and they exiled him for precisely that reason." -Abbas Milani, 2013 -
Ayatollah Khomeini exiled to Turkey
Khomeini was exiled by the Shah to prevent him from further influencing the people of Iran and to secure his rule. -
Eighty eight protesters are killed by government security forces in a day known as "Black Friday"
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Shah Pahlavi sympathizes with the protesters
"I heard the voice of your revolution... As Shah of Iran as well as an Iranian citizen, I cannot but approve your revolution." – Shah Pahlavi, November 5, 1978 -
Two million Iranians protest in Azadi Square
"It [The Iranian Revolution] was the most mass based revolution arguably in human history; even the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution did not come close, as to how many people were in the streets... it was very much street politics." – Babak Rahimi, 2013 -
The Shah flees to the U.S.
“The shah has fled, SAVAK is fatherless.” – Slogan shouted by Iranian demonstrators -
The Ayatollah returns to Iran
"Those who imagine that some force other than Islam could shatter the great barrier of tyranny are mistaken. As for those who oppose us because of their opposition to Islam, we must cure them by means of guidance..." –Ayatollah Khomeini -
98% of Iranian vote for Islamic Theocracy
"Offering a new model for doing political activities and having a new model of statehood, governance in the region that was radical, you now have a theocracy in region that has not seen one probably for centuries. So that was a major thing, in fact it was not just about Iran, it was about the whole globe." – Babak Rahimi, 2013 -
U.S. Embassy seized
"The other interesting aspect of the Iranian Revolution was the hostage crisis because it suddenly changed the dynamic of the revolution that was fundamentally against the monarchy now its changing by 1979, November 1979, it changed to kinda an anti US agenda." -Babak Rahimi, 2013 -
U.S. hostages released
"Reagan Takes Oath as 40th President; Promises an 'Era of National Renewal' Minutes Later, 52 U.S. Hostages in Iran Fly to Freedom after 444 Day Ordeal" -New York Times
