November 21, 1979: After false radio reports from the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that Americans had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, the U.S. Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad is attacked by a mob and set afire.
Four Embassy personnel were killed in the attack: A U.S. Marine security guard, a U.S. Army warrant officer, and 2 local Pakistani employees. The American ambassador, Arthur W. Hummel Jr., was outside of the embassy at the time of the attack, and therefore was able to escape from the rioters before being harmed.
Shortly after the riots began, President Jimmy Carter contacted Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq by phone, to warn him against allowing the embassy employees' safety to be compromised. However, Zia proved reluctant to dispatch troops to disperse the crowd.
By the morning of November 22, the Pakistan Army moved in to retake the Embassy grounds. Two of the rioting students were killed, and as many as 70 additional rioters were injured.
The burning of the Embassy in Islamabad played into Khomeini's Islamic Revolution export propaganda amid the Iran Hostage Crisis, and Khomeini himself later publicly praised the Pakistani rioters' actions after hearing about the attack. Zia condemned the embassy burning as "not in keeping with lofty Islamic traditions" while refraining from overtly criticizing Jamaat-i-Islami, which had been a political ally in his Islamization of Pakistan.
All these events of Asia in late 1979, from the Iran Hostage Crisis to the upcoming Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, seemed shocking to a boy not quite 10 years old. As I go through middle age, the shocking thing is that things didn't get more out of control. But that's the difference between having a calm President and a crazy one.
Zia became President in 1977, by leading the army in overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. America looked the other way, because, like so many other dictators in the world at the time, he was anti-Communist. He died in office in 1988. Democracy was restored, under his predecessor's daughter, Benazir Bhutto.
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November 21, 1979 was a Wednesday. Hockey player Alex Tanguay was born on this day.
There were 9 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers, 119-108 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 111-103 at the Boston Garden.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 122-103 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Utah Jazz, 98-93 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 96-93 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.)
* The Houston Rockets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 97-94 at The Summit in Houston. (It's been converted into the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Kansas City Kings, 128-120 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the San Diego Clippers, 105-84 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 119-110 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
And there were 8 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Winnipeg Jets, 6-4 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Minnesota North Stars, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomigton, Minnesota.
* The Hartford Whalers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-3 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. They were playing at the arena now named the MassMutual Center while the Hartford Civic Center, now named the XL Center, was being rebuilt after its 1978 roof collapse.
* The Atlanta Flames beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 4-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Washington Capitals, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* And the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks, the Colorado Rockies and the Quebec Nordiques were not scheduled.
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