29 years ago tomorrow: The start of the Iran Hostage Crisis...

[Dennis Donovan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis

The Iran hostage crisis (Persian: تصرف سفارت آمریکا ) was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 U.S. diplomats were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian students took over the American embassy in support of the Iranian revolution.

In Iran, the incident was seen by many as a blow against the U.S and its long standing support of the autocratic Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah had been restored to power by a CIA-funded coup in 1953 and had recently been allowed into the United States for cancer treatment. In the United States, the hostage-taking was seen as an outrage violating a centuries-old principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds sovereignty in the territory of the host country they occupy. The U.S.'s 1953 coup of Iran's democratically elected government had been conceived and executed from the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

The ordeal reached a climax when after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which resulted in an aborted mission, the crash of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American military men. The crisis ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.

Wow. 29 years...

[Pavulon]

1. Progress here...

internet, mri systems, distributed computing, cell phones, numerous medical procedures, fall of ussr, numerous technical achievements. Massive GDP and great society.

Iran, still stoning gays, women, and short on anything worth sharing with the world.

[hay rick]

2. Iranian students changed the world.

Mostly through unintended consequences. Carter's futility in dealing with the hostage crisis ensured his re-election defeat. We ended up with the "Reagan revolution"- a curious description for something that was and is thoroughly reactionary.