November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis Begins

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis begins. Islamic militants, inspired by the Islamic Revolution 9 months earlier, led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a fundamentalist Shia Muslim cleric, take over the U.S. Embassy in Iran, and take 80 hostages, a number that will drop to 52. At first, the nation rallies around President Jimmy Carter, as the nation tends to rally around the President when a crisis occurs.

By April 25, 1980, when the failed "Desert One" rescue attempt occurred, Carter had the Democratic nomination for a 2nd term sewed up, and people (including some Republicans crossing over) started voting for Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy as a protest vote, knowing he could no longer win the nomination, but the Primaries he might win could, and did, damage Carter.

As the Crisis dragged on and on, with ABC News starting its late-night broadcast Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppel, and that show and Walter Cronkite on The CBS Evening News both counting the days up and up and up -- Day 50, Day 100, Day 200, Day 365, and so on -- and as the economy continued to struggle as it had begun to do in 1979, people got more and more fed up with Carter.

The 1980 election was held exactly one year to the date after the Crisis began, and Carter lost very badly to Ronald Reagan.

As the great politically-themed comedian Mort Sahl put it: "Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. Had he run unopposed, he would have lost."

The hostages:

* From the U.S. Army: Colonels Leland Holland and Charles W. Scott, military attachés; Chief Warrant Officer 3rd Class Joseph M. Hall, USA, military attaché; Master Sergeant Regis Ragan, defense attaché’s office; Staff Sergeant Joseph Subic, military police; Specialist 1st Class Donald Hohman, medic.

* From the U.S. Navy: Commander Donald Sharer and Lieutenant Commander Robert Engelmann, military attachés; IS1 Duane Gillette, communications and intelligence specialist.

* From the U.S. Air Force: Colonel Thomas Schaefer, Air Force attaché; Lieutenant Colonel David Roeder, deputy Air Force attaché; Captain Neal Robinson, military intelligence officer; Captain Paul Needham, logistics staff officer; Master Sergeant Joseph Vincent and Sergeant James Hughes, administrative managers.

* From the U.S. Marine Corps: Staff Sergeant Michael Moeller, head of the Marine Corps guard unit, as every U.S. Embassy is guarded by Marines; Sergeants William Gallegos, Kevin Hermening, Paul Lewis, James Lopez, Ladell Maples, John McKeel, Gregory Persinger, William Quarles, Rodney Sickmann, David Walker and Westley Williams, and Corporal Steven Kirtley, embassy guards.

* From the CIA (their roles since declassified): William J. Daugherty, secretary of the U.S. mission; Jerry Miele and Phillip Ward, communications officers.

* Civilians: Richard Morefield, consul general; Thomas Ahern, narcotics control officer; Clair Cortland Barnes, communications specialist; William Belk, records officer; Robert Blucker, economics officer; Donald Cooke and Richard Queen, vice consuls; Bruce German, budget officer; Alan Golacinski, chief of embassy security; John Graves, public affairs officer; Michael Howland, assistant regional security officer; Charles A. Jones Jr., teletype operator; Malcolm Kalp and Moorhead Kennedy, commercial officers; Kathryn Koob, cultural officer; Frederick Kupke, electronics specialist; Bruce Laingen, chargé d'affaires; Gary Lee, administrative officer; John Limbert and Michael Metrinko, political officers; Bert Moore, administration counselor; Robert Ode, retired foreign service officer on temporary duty in Tehran; Jerry Plotkin, civilian businessman visiting Tehran; Lloyd Rollins, administrative officer; Barry Rosen, press attaché; William Royer, assistant director of the Iran-American Society; Elizabeth Ann Swift, deputy head of political section; Victor Tomseth, counselor for political affairs; Kathy Gross, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Terri Tedford and Joan Walsh, secretaries.

Kathy Gross, Ladell Maples and William Quarles were released on November 19, 1979. James Hughes, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Lloyd Rollins, Neal Robinson, Terri Tedford, Joseph Vincent, David Walker, Joan Walsh and Westley Williams were released on November 20. Richard Queen, for health reasons, was released on July 11, 1980. The remaining 52 had to wait until the end, January 20, 1981, 444 days.

Joan Walsh and Michael Howland married each other in 1982. William Keough died in 1985, Leland Holland in 1990, John McKeel in 1991, Robert Ode in 1995, Jerry Plotkin in 1996, Bert Moore in 2000, Michael Kalp and Richard Queen in 2002, Elizabeth Cronin (formerly Elizabeth Swift) in 2004; Bruce German, Richard Morefield and Gary Lee in 2010, Phillip Ward in 2012, Thomas Schaefer in 2016, Neal Robinson in 2017, Bruce Laingen in 2019, Westley Williams in 2020, Donald Sharer and Donald Hohman in 2021, and Duane Gillette in 2022. As of November 4, 2022, the others are still alive.

UPDATE: Moorhead Kennedy died in 2024.

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November 4, 1979 was a Sunday. The baseball season was over. But the NFL held games:

* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 16-14 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-22 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-19 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 26-6 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins, 38-7 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-28 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17-14 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the New Orleans Saints, 10-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks, 24-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 9-6 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Kansas City Kings, 101-98 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena)

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 127-124 in overtime at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. George Gervin led all scorers on the night, with 32 points.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Rangers trailed 2-1 with 4:16 left in regulation, but they got an equalizer on the power play from Anders Hedberg at that point, a go-ahead goal from Phil Esposito with 3:07 to go, and an empty-netter at the end from Don Maloney.

* The New York Islanders played the Winnipeg Jets to a tie, 4-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

August 19, 1953: The CIA-Aided Coup In Iran

August 19, 1953: A military coup overthrows the democratically-elected government of Iran, and restores the deposed monarch, the Shah (Emperor), Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had served in the Majlis, Iran's Parliament, since 1923, was appointed Prime Minister in 1951, and won a contentious election in 1952. He was a populist, enormously popular in the country; and a nationalist, resisting the influence of both the Soviet Union and the Western nations that had long dominated his country, mostly America, Britain and France. Time magazine named him their Man of the Year for 1951.

He sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now part of British Petroleum, or BP), to verify that AIOC was paying the contracted royalties to Iran, and to limit the company's control over Iran's vast oil reserves. Upon the AIOC's refusal to cooperate with the Iranian government, the Majlis voted to nationalize Iran's oil industry, and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.

That infuriated British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who instigated a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically. For all his leadership in opposing fascism in World War II, Churchill was innately racist, and didn't trust any native peoples anywhere to run things that he thought should be run by Britain.

Judging Mosaddegh to be unamenable, and fearing the growing influence of the Tudeh Party, Iran's Communists, Churchill met with officials of the Administration of President Harry S Truman, and proposed a coup. Truman rejected this, fearing the precedent that would be set by America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) being involved in such an enterprise.

But with the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 came the appointment of John Foster Dulles as U.S. Secretary of State, and his brother Allen Dulles as Director of the CIA. Both men were among the iciest of the Cold Warriors, and had no problem agreeing to Churchill's wishes.

The CIA, under Kermit Roosevelt Jr., grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, ran Operation Ajax, in conjunction with Britain's MI6, in Operation Boot. They hired mobsters to stage pro-Shah riots in the capital of Tehran. Between 200 and 300 people were killed in rioting. Finally, General Fazlollah Zahedi moved in, and formed a new government, which allowed the Shah to retake power.

Mossadegh was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason by the Shah's military court. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison, and then was kept under house arrest until his death in 1967, at the age of 84. Zahedi served as Prime Minister from 1953 to 1955, retired, and lived until 1963.

The Shah ran a very progressive country in many ways, and Iran was seen as a modern nation. But it was a fascist nation, with SAVAK becoming one of the world's most dreaded secret police. In 1979, the Shah was overthrown in an Islamic Revolution, led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Already dying of cancer, he was too weak to mount an opposition, fled the country, and died the next year.

Never forgiving the Americans for their role in the 1953 coup, militants captured the American Embassy in Tehran, and held 52 Americans hostage for over a year. Over the next 10 years, Iran sponsored terrorist attacks on American military units around the Middle East.

In 2013, on the 60th Anniversary of the coup, the U.S. government formally acknowledged its predecessor's role in the 1953 Iran coup, releasing a bulk of previously classified government documents that show it was in charge of both the planning and the execution of the coup, including the bribing of Iranian politicians, security and army high-ranking officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda. The CIA is quoted acknowledging the coup was carried out "under CIA direction" and "as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government."

Relations between America and Iran remain very cold, as cold as any between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were during the Cold War.

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August 19, 1953 was a Wednesday. Republican political strategist Mary Matalin was born.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium. Jim McDonald pitched a 4-hit shutout. Yogi Berra hit a home run. Mickey Mantle did not play.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 7-5 at Ebbets Field.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams, having returned from the Korean War, hit a home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Browns scored 2 runs in the top of the 10th inning, on a triple by Les Moss and a sacrifice bunt by Vic Wertz (normally a slugger, not a bunter). The White Sox got 1 back in the bottom of the 10th, on a double by Nellie Fox, but couldn't find the tying run.

The Browns would go 12-21 the rest of the way, and move to Baltimore to become the Orioles for the 1954 season.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 at the last Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, which had just been rebranded as the 1st Busch Stadium. Stan Musial went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

February 1, 1979: The Ayatollah Returns to Iran

February 1, 1979: The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran, after a 15-year exile. It is seen as the high point of the Iranian Revolution, a.k.a. the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

He was born on May 17, 1900 in Khomeyn, hence his surname. His homeland was known as Qajar Iran, or "The Sublime State of Persia," until 1925. The Pahlavi dynasty took hold, and in 1935, changed the country's name from Persia to Iran.

As a young man, Khomeini was fascinated with both his native Shia Islamic culture and the ancient Greeks, in particular Aristotle. He became a leading Shia scholar and a published poet in the 1920s. By the 1940s, he was writing political books.

In 1963, having been awarded the honorific "Ayatollah," meaning "Sign of God" -- and there are many Ayatollahs, it's just that he's the one who ended up being referred to as the Ayatollah -- he opposed the "White Revolution," a liberalization of the nation announced by the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He was placed under house arrest, and was expelled from the country on November 4, 1964, living in Bursa, Turkey for a year, and then in Najaf, Iraq until 1978, when he was expelled from that country by its new dictator, Saddam Hussein. He fled to Paris. 

Aware of the importance of broadening his base, Khomeini reached out to Islamic reformist and secular enemies of the Shah, groups that were suppressed after he took and consolidated power. Khomeini became the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah.

Adding to his mystique was the circulation among Iranians in the 1970s of an old Shia saying attributed to the Imam Musa al-Kadhem. Prior to his death in AD 799, al-Kadhem was said to have prophesied that "[a] man will come out from Qom and he will summon people to the right path." By late 1978, Khomeini was increasingly regarded as a messianic figure in Iran, and perceived by many as the spiritual as well as political leader of the revolt.

Late in 1978, the Shah announced, "I have heard the voice of your revolution," and promised major reforms. He soon released political prisoners, but it wasn't enough. He saw military leaders end their support for him. He heard that the key Western leaders: Presidents Jimmy Carter of American and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France, Prime Minister James Callaghan of Britain, and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany, were going to meet to discuss the crisis. The Shah took this to mean that they were looking for a way to abandon him.

On January 16, 1979, the Shah and his family fled, leaving Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar in charge of the country. He dissolved SAVAK, the much-hated secret police, freed the remaining political prisoners, and invited Khomeini to return to Iran.

This was a terrible mistake by Bakhtiar. On February 1, Khomeini returned to a rapturous reception at the airport. Bakhtiar had to leave as well, and did so on February 11. Khomeini was now a dictator, and he seemed to be the one the nation wanted.

Time magazine named Khomeini its "Man of the Year" for 1979. This led to thousands of outraged letters from the magazine's readers. The editors reminded them that it's not an award, it's a distinction: The man (or person, as it's been "Person of the Year" from 2000 onward) who, in the editors' collective opinion, has most affected the news in the past year.

All references to the imperial family were removed. Taj Football Club, one of the most successful sports teams in the country, had to change its name, which means "Crown." It became Esteghlal, meaning "Independence." Its rivalry with fellow Tehran team Perseopolis remains vicious, and women are still not allowed to attend soccer games in Iran.

Because he seemed like a tyrant, to young men who had never known true tyranny, Herb Brooks, the head coach of the U.S. hockey team that went on to win the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics, was nicknamed "The Ayatollah." So was George Graham, manager of London soccer team Arsenal F.C. from 1986 to 1995. Having had a bit of a playboy image as a player, but become a disciplinarian, he freely admitted, "The player I was could never have played for the manager that I am."

But the Ayatollah of Ayatollahs, Ruhollah Khomeini, ruled Iran with an iron fist for the next 10 years, dying on June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. He was succeeded by the similarly-named Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As of February 1, 2022, he is still in charge, at the age of 82. In 1991, he ordered Bakhtiar's assassination, even though he was in exile. For the Shah, it wasn't necessary, as he died of cancer in exile in 1980.

Reza Pahlavi was 18 years old and the Crown Prince of Iran when his father, the Shah, was overthrown. Luckily for him, he was already in the U.S., training as a fighter pilot, much as was his cousin and fellow heir to a Middle Eastern throne, now King Abdullah II of Jordan.

He now lives in Potomac, Maryland, outside Washington. He is the founder and leader of the Iran National Council, a government-in-exile, having gotten a degree in political science from the University of Southern California. Unlike his father, he has been an outspoken supporter of human rights, saying that in order to bring freedom to his homeland, "Idealism and realism, behavior change and regime change do not require different policies but the same: Empowering the Iranian people."

On his website, he calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran, and for free and fair elections "for all freedom-loving individuals and political ideologies." A follower of Shia Islam, he has stated that he believes that religion has a humanizing and ethical role in shaping individual character and infusing society with greater purpose.

His supporters have referred to him as "His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II" since his father's death, but he officially calls himself "the former Crown Prince," and admits he has no realistic hope of the monarchy being restored, even when the Ayatollahs are finally and rightfully toppled. He has written 3 books about his homeland, and in 2014 he founded OfoghIran, a television and radio network.

Although he has been married for 34 years, his 3 children are all girls, so an older cousin, Patrick Ali Pahlavi, is next in line to the throne, followed by his son Davoud.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much political movement, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

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February 1, 1979 was a Thursday. Actress Rachelle Lefevre was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Seattle SuperSonics, 107-102 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Eric Money led all scorers on the night, with 40 points in defeat for the Nets. Jack Sikma led the Sonics with 30.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-116 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richield, Ohio.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 128-105 at the Chicago Stadium. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 32 points.

* And the Washington Bullets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-122 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Bob Dandridge scored 36 points. George "the Iceman" Gervin scored 37 points in defeat.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

And there was 1 game in the World Hockey Association: The Birmingham Bulls beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-5 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (now the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex) in Birmingham, Alabama.