Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981).

Iranian Students Storming The US embassy in Tehran in 1979

It happened after a group of Iranian students supporting the Iranian Revolution took over the US Embassy in Tehran.^[1] President Jimmy Carter called the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy," adding that "the United States will not yield to blackmail."

The U.S. tried to free the hostages during the crisis, but failed when rescue officials were killed in a helicopter crash.

The hostages were released just as Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated as President.

Iran Hostage Crisis Media

Iran attempted to use the occupation to provide leverage in its demand for the return of the shah to stand trial in Iran
Anticipating the takeover of the embassy, the Americans tried to destroy classified documents in a furnace. The furnace malfunctioned and the staff was forced to use cheap paper shredders. Skilled carpet weavers were later employed to reconstruct the documents.
Two American hostages during the siege of the U.S. Embassy.
A two-minute clip from a newsreel regarding the hostage crisis (1980)
An anti-Iranian protest in Washington, D.C., in 1979. The front of the sign reads "Deport all Iranians" and "Get the hell out of my country", and the back reads "Release all Americans now".
A headline in an Islamic Republican newspaper on November 5, 1979, read "Revolutionary occupation of U.S. embassy".
A group photograph of the fifty-two hostages in a Wiesbaden hospital where they spent a few days after their release.
A heckler in Washington, D.C., leans across a police line toward a demonstration of Iranians in August 1980.
Americans expressed gratitude for Canadian efforts to rescue American diplomats during the hostage crisis.