Modern Era · Middle East · Politics

1979

US embassy hostages taken in Tehran

November 4, 1979

Iranian students scaled the walls of the US embassy in Tehran and took fifty-two American diplomats hostage. They would hold them for four hundred and forty-four days, releasing them on the hour Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. Jimmy Carter's presidency foundered on the crisis. American relations with Iran have not recovered since.

More from 1979 Modern Era

In context

Also in 1979 (6 other events on record)

Khomeini returns to Iran · Middle East · Politics
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan · Central Asia · War
Thatcher becomes PM · Europe · Politics
Three Mile Island · North America · Disaster
Sandinistas take Managua · North America · Politics
Grand Mosque seized in Mecca · Middle East · Religion

Before and after in Middle East

Before: September 17, 1978: Camp David Accords
After: September 22, 1980: Iran-Iraq War begins

Before and after in Politics

Before: December 1978: Deng launches Chinese reform
After: May 18, 1980: Gwangju uprising

Era

Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.