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Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini organizes opposition to the Shah's Local council election bill. The Bill introduced by Shah's government allows non-Muslims to run for councils and gives women the right to vote. Religious pressure forced the government to back down completely and abandon the bill. Khomeini emerges from the fight as a “spiritual leader of the bazaari activists”. -
White Revolution
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi proposes "White Revolution". This was a reform program built especially to strengthen those classes that supported the traditional system. Which led Khomeini to summoning a meeting of his colleagues with the intention of opposing the Shah's plans. -
Movement of 15 Khordad
Khomeini delivered a strongly worded declaration accusing the Shah and his plans. Two days later the Shah delivered a speech harshly attacking the ulama, however Khomeini continued his accusations of the Shah's programs. Khomeini is arrested two days later, the day after this major protest riots break out in cities over Iran, which is later known as Movement of 15 Khordad. Martial law is declared and hundreds are killed. -
Khomeini's Release
Khomeini is released from custody and returns to Qom. Later in the year he accused the government of being illegitimate and was immediately arrested and taken the the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran. He was later exiled in November, and does not return to Iran for 14 years. -
Black Friday
On September 8, 1978 nicknamed "Black Friday" Shah declares martial law in response to protests against Pahlavi dynasty. The military of Iran uses force including helicopters and tanks to break up the mostly peaceful demonstrators. About 88 demonstrators are killed. Opposition leaders start to falsely spread the death count figures as high as "tens of thousands". -
Tasu'a and Ashura
On Tasu'a and Ashura an estimated 17 million people throughout the country marched peacefully demanding the removal of the Shah and the return of Khomeini. A 17-point resolution is presented during the demonstration "declaring the Ayatollah Khomeini to be the leader of the Iranian people," and calling on Iranians to struggle until the Shah is overthrown. The politician Shapour Bakhtiar was chosen as the prime minister by the Shah as he prepares to leave the country. -
Khomeini Returns
Mohammad Reza and his family leave Iran for good. Following this Khomeini returns and is greeted by the five million people who lined the streets of Tehran. Three days after his arrival he created The Interim Government of Iran and appoint Mehdi Bazargan as prime minister. -
Victorious Revolution
Fighting breaks out between pro-Khomeini technicians of the Iran Air Force and Iranian Imperial Guard. Bakhtiar announces curfew and martial, but Khomeini orders followers to ignore it. Leftist guerrillas and revolutionaries join rebel troops in looting weapons from police stations and other government facilities. The army finally declared neutrality, the regime collapses, the revolution was victorious, and Bakhtiar, the royal prime minister, goes into hiding, eventually finding exile in Paris. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
After he was overthrown in 1979, the shah was admitted to the United States for cancer treatment. Iran demanded that he be returned to stand trial for crimes he was accused of committing during his reign. After the United States government refused hand him over a group of Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. More than sixty American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days until Khomeini’s Government decided it was time to end the matter on January 20, 1981. -
New Constitution of Iran
In June 1979 the Freedom Movement released its draft constitution for the Islamic Republic that it had been working on since Khomeini was in exile. Leftists found the draft too conservative and in need of major changes but Khomeini declared it `correct`. To approve the new constitution and prevent leftist alterations, a small seventy-three-member Assembly of Experts for Constitution was elected that summer. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was ratified on July 28, 1882.
