LITMIR.BIZ

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his oldest son, Mohammad Reza, is proclaimed crown prince.

      1935 Persia is renamed Iran.

      1941-45 British and Russians again occupy Iran during World War II because of Shah Reza’s pro-German sympathies; Reza abdicates; his pro-British son is crowned shah.

      1950s-1960s The Iranian government nationalizes the oil industry, provoking a CIA coup.

      1951 Lawyer Mohammed Mosaddegh is elected Iran’s 35th prime minister by parliament and nationalizes Iran’s oil industry. … Power struggle erupts between Mosaddegh and Shah Mohammad Reza.

      1953 Shah dismisses Mosaddegh, sparking riots that force the shah to flee the country. … Mosaddegh, accused by Britain of having communist leanings, is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and British intelligence; the shah returns.

      1957 The shah creates the SAVAK secret police, which becomes notorious for torturing and killing dissenters.

      1963-77 Shah undertakes modernization campaign and loosens restrictions on women; Iran becomes Cold War ally of the United States.

      1978-1995 Islamic revolution transforms Iran into bitter U.S. foe.

      1978-79 Iranian revolution, directed by ultraconservative cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini from exile in Paris, begins. Shah and family go into exile. … Khomeini returns, declares Islamic Republic. … Militants take 52 Americans hostage in U.S. Embassy; Washington severs diplomatic ties with Tehran.

      1980-81 Iraq-Iran war begins. … Iran releases U.S. hostages after 444 days in captivity.

      1982 After Israel invades Lebanon, Iran creates Shiite Hezbollah militia to resist Israeli occupation.

      1983 Iran-backed Hezbollah militants launch truck-bomb attacks on U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing more than 300 people. The group also takes 25 American civilians in Lebanon hostage.

      1985 To win the hostages’ release, Reagan administration secretly and illegally sells arms to Tehran, using payments to fund anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua.

      1988-89 Iraq-Iran war ends in stalemate. … Khomeini dies; Ayatollah Ali Khamenei becomes Iran’s supreme leader.

      1990-95 United States imposes sanctions on Iran over its alleged support for terrorism.

      2000-2010 U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq enable Iran to extend its regional influence.

      2001 After Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, a U.S.-led coalition invades Afghanistan to stamp out al Qaeda terrorist group, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks; with Iranian help, Sunni extremist Taliban government is toppled in Kabul. … President George W. Bush ignores Iranian outreach for better relations.

      2002 Bush brands Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil,” sparking outrage in Iran. … Tehran begins construction of its first nuclear reactor.

      2003 U.S. invades Iraq, ousting Saddam Hussein, Iran’s Sunni archenemy. … Elections in Iraq bring Iranian-backed Shiite government to power, expanding Tehran’s influence there.

      2007-10 After the International Atomic Energy Agency predicts Iran can develop a nuclear weapon within eight years, the United States imposes additional sanctions on Iran; the following year, the United Nations Security Council adds international sanctions.

      2011-Present Iran accepts an international deal that lifts nuclear-related sanctions, but President Trump withdraws and reimposes sanctions.

      2013 Iran and six world powers begin negotiations toward a nuclear accord.

      2014 Shiite Houthi tribesmen in Yemen overthrow the government, prompting a Saudi-led military campaign to oust the rebels, who later align with Iran.

      2015 Iran, the United States and five other nations sign the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action curtailing Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

      2018 Trump withdraws the United States from the nuclear deal and reimposes tough sanctions on Iran, demanding Iran accept a far more stringent accord; Iran refuses.

      2019 U.S.-Iran tensions spike after attacks on foreign tankers in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone and drone-and-missile strikes on Saudi oil facilities.

      Hostage Crisis

      The first phase of the Iranian revolution, which lasted until Khomeini’s death in 1989, was marked by a violent purge of the shah’s associates and by the November 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by militant students. Enraged that the U.S. government had allowed the shah to come to the United States for cancer treatment, the students captured 52 American diplomats and held them hostage for 444 days, despite an aborted rescue attempt by the U.S. military in 1980. The U.S. Treasury froze $12 billion in Iranian assets here and abroad.⁴¹

      After lengthy negotiations brokered by Algeria, the hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981, the day Republican Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president. Since then, the two countries have had no official diplomatic relations, and the hostage affair cemented the Islamic Republic as an implacable foe in the minds of most Americans.

      Blindfolded American diplomats are paraded outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Militant students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days before releasing them on the day Ronald Reagan became president.

      Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images

      During the next decade, Iran exported anti-American Islamic extremism across the Muslim world. In 1983, Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants bombed the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon. They later murdered the CIA’s Beirut station chief and held hostage 25 U.S. civilians working in Lebanon. U.S. efforts to gain their release would spawn the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran—in violation of U.S. law—in exchange for the hostages’ freedom. Proceeds from the sale were used to fund anti-communist Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua, violating a congressional ban on such payments.⁴²

      Iranian Women Defy Mandatory Hijab Laws

       Government imposes 10-year sentence for removing a headscarf in public.

      In late September, Iranian intelligence agents arrested three relatives of Masih Alinejad, a U.S.-based Iranian dissident in what human rights groups called a bid to intimidate the U.S.-based activist. Alinejad, 43, leads a popular campaign against the Islamic Republic’s laws requiring women and girls to wear a hijab, or headscarf.

      Those arrested include the brother of Alinejad, whose women’s rights campaign has alarmed the conservative clerics who run Iran’s courts, as well as the brother and sister of Alinejad’s former husband. After the three were interrogated about Alinejad’s activities, the brother-in-law was released with a warning: Any contact with the feminist activist will be considered a crime. The status of the other two detainees is unclear.

      “These arrests are a blatant attempt by the Iranian authorities to punish Masih Alinejad for her peaceful work defending women’s rights,” Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East research and advocacy director, said in a statement.¹

      In 2014 Alinejad denounced Iran’s compulsory hijab law on Facebook, calling it discriminatory, and encouraged Iranian women to post photographs and videos of themselves removing their headscarves. The campaign

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