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Timeline of the Iranian Revolution

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This article is a timeline of events relevant to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. For earlier events refer to Pahlavi dynasty and for later ones refer to History of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article doesn't include the reasons of the events and further information is available in Islamic revolution of Iran.

Prelude

1930s

  • January 8 1936: Implementation of Kashf-e hijab (unveiling decree).
  • 1939: Mahmoud Taleghani is arrested for the first time due to anti-government activities.

1940s

  • August–September 1941: World War II allies Britain and Soviet Union invade Iran to secure railway to supply Soviet Union. They depose Reza Shah whom they consider too sympathetic to the Axis powers, and they exile him to South Africa. His son Mohammad Reza becomes the new Pahlavi Shah of Iran.
  • October 2, 1941: Foundation of the Tudeh Party of Iran, a Marxist-Leninist political party.
  • 1946 Iran crisis. Joseph Stalin refuses to withdraw occupying forces from Iranian Azerbaijan and demands oil concessions. The Tudeh Party sides with the Soviet Union.
  • October 22, 1947: Following the withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Iranian Parliament rejects the ratification of the Soviet-Iranian oil agreement by a vote of 102 to 2.
  • January 1948: Disillusioned with the Tudeh Party, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad and several other intellectuals defect from the party.
  • February 4, 1949: Assassination attempt on the Shah during his visit to Tehran University. The regime blames the Tudeh Party, leading to the party being banned and forced underground.
  • November 12 1949: Foundation of the National Front of Iran, a broad-based coalition advocating for oil nationalization.

1950s

See also: Timeline of the Abadan Crisis
  • March 7 1951: Prime Minister Ali Razmara, who had spoken against oil nationalization, is assassinated by Fadayan-e Islam.
  • March 15 1951: Parliament passes the bill to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).
  • April 1951: Cabinet of Mohammad Mossaddegh is formed.
  • May 1 1951: Expropriation of AIOC assets begins, sparking the Abadan Crisis.
  • July 1952: Following the fall of the first Mossaddegh cabinet, a popular uprising erupts, leading to the formation of the second Mossaddegh cabinet.
  • August 1953: Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who had resisted for months despite British and American calls for him to dismiss Prime Minister Mohammed Mossaddegh, gets nervous about the popular nationalist prime minister's designs when Mossadegh dissolved the parliament and began rule by decree.
  • August 15, 1953: The Shah dismisses Mossaddegh as prime minister. Meanwhile, TPMO, a secret Tudeh military wing infiltrated within the armed forces, detects the coup plot and provides intelligence to Mossaddegh. Anticipating the coup, Mossaddegh refuses to step down and instead arrests the royal messenger delivering the dismissal order.
  • August 16, 1953: In a panic, the Shah flees to Italy.
  • August 17, 1953: Emboldened by the situation, the Tudeh Party demands the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic, pressuring the Mossaddegh cabinet, but is subsequently suppressed by Mossaddegh utilizing military and police forces.
Mossadegh, brought to trial on November 8 after being deposed.
  • August 19, 1953: The actual coup d'état takes place, leading to the overthrow of Mossaddegh. The Tudeh Party's overt organization is decimated, and its leadership flees into exile abroad, effectively neutralizing the party.
  • August 22, 1953: The Shah returns to Iran and proclaims this day as the "National Resurrection Day."
  • 1954: First edition of Mahmoud Taleghani's book Islam and Ownership is published.
  • November 17 1955: Navvab Safavi of Fadayan-e Islam attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Hossein Ala', but the attempt fails.
  • Late November 1955: Mahmoud Taleghani is arrested on charges of harboring Navvab Safavi.
  • March 12, 1957: Foundation of the secret police SAVAK, marking the beginning of intensified political terror.

1960s

Rally of women in support of the White Revolution.
  • January 1963: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi proposes "White Revolution". The government introduces a six-point reform bill to be put to a nationwide referendum vote. Six points also included Women's suffrage, as well as other reforms. [citation needed] Khomeini summoned a meeting of his colleagues in Qom to press upon them the necessity of opposing the Shah's plans.
  • January 9, 1963: The initial six points of the White Revolution referendum (including land reform, forest nationalization, privatization of state-owned enterprises, profit-sharing, women's suffrage, and a literacy corps) are proposed. Khomeini summons his colleagues in Qom to urge opposition to the Shah's plans.
  • January 22 1963: Khomeini issued a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. Two days later Shah took armored column to Qom, and he delivered a speech harshly attacking the ulama. Khomeini continues his denunciation of the Shah's programs, issuing a manifesto that also bore the signatures of eight other senior scholars. In it he listed the various ways in which the Shah had violated the constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of comprehensive submission to America and Israel. He also decrees that the Norouz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 be canceled as a sign of protest against government policies.
  • January 26, 1963: The White Revolution referendum passes with a 99.93% approval rate. The National Front and the Freedom Movement boycott the vote.
  • April 1963: The Islamic Coalition Party is established, rooted in the bazaari and traditionalist clerics.
  • June 3, 1963: Khomeini harshly denounces the Shah, drawing parallels between him and the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I,[1] the perpetrator of the Karbala tragedy who killed Husayn ibn Ali—tantamount to declaring him an archenemy in Shia Islam.
15 Khordad protests.
  • June 5, 1963: Khomeini is arrested, sparking the 15 Khordad protests led by the Islamic Coalition Party and the Freedom Movement. Martial law is declared and hundreds are killed;[3] After nineteen days in the Qasr prison, Ayatollah Khomeini was moved first to the 'Eshratabad' military base and then to a house in the 'Davoudiyeh' section of Tehran where he is kept under surveillance.[1] after 19 days in prison, Khomeini is placed under house arrest. SAVAK chief Hassan Pakravan communicates with senior religious leaders, fearing a popular uprising if Khomeini is executed.
Shariatmadari (left), who saved the life of Khomeini (right).
  • July 1963: Senior religious figures, including Grand Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, elevate Khomeini to the rank of Grand Ayatollah to protect him from execution.
  • Autumn 1963: Hosseiniyeh Ershad is established under the leadership of Nasser Minachi, commencing lectures before the completion of the building construction.
  • April 7, 1964: Khomeini is released from house arrest and returns from Tehran to Qom.[1]
  • June 1964: Mahmoud Taleghani is sentenced to 10 years in prison for leading the 15 Khordad protests. While in prison, he preaches the Quran to inmates, debates with leftist prisoners, and completes the final (fourth) edition of Islam and Ownership.
Shariati released from prison, greeted by his family.
  • June 1964: Ali Shariati returns to Iran after completing his doctorate at the Sorbonne University in France. He is arrested immediately upon arrival, imprisoned for several months, and released in early 1965.
  • October 9, 1964: Shariatmadari establishes Dar al-Tabligh, an Islamic modernist seminary.
Khomeini denounces the capitulations.
  • October 26 1964: Khomeini denounces "capitulations" (the government's underhanded extending of diplomatic immunity to American military personnel), and calls the agreement as surrender of Iranian independence and sovereignty, made in exchange for a $200 million loan that would be of benefit only to the Shah and his associates, and describes all those in the Majlis who voted in favor of it as traitors, concluding that the government is illegitimate.[1][4]
  • November 4, 1964: Khomeini is exiled to Turkey via Mehrabad International Airport, beginning his 15-year period of exile.
  • 10am January 22 1965: Hassan-Ali Mansur, the prime minister, who passed the Geneva Convention American Force Protection Act, also known as the "Capitulation Law", is assassinated by Mohammad Bokharaii, and Amir Abbas Hoveyda is appointed in his stead.[citation needed]
  • September 5 1965: Considering the Freedom Movement too moderate and ineffective, Tehran University students including Mohammad Hanifnejad and Ali Asghar Badiazadegan found the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an Islamic socialist political faction. On the same day, Khomeini leaves Turkey for Najaf in Iraq, where he was destined to spend 13 years. He teaches in seminary during this time.[1]
  • November 1966: Shariati is appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of History at Mashhad University. He begins lecturing the following year, creating a phenomenon among students with an innovative perspective combining Marxism, existentialism, and Shia Islamism, with his ideas being strongly embraced by the MEK.
  • March 5, 1967: Mossaddegh dies under house arrest at the age of 84.
  • June 2, 1967: The Shah visits West Berlin. Protests by German students turn into riots following a violent police crackdown, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed.
  • October 26, 1967: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi holds his coronation ceremony, officially crowning himself as Shahanshah (King of Kings, Emperor).
  • November 1967: Shariati is invited as a lecturer at Hosseiniyeh Ershad in Tehran, traveling between Mashhad and Tehran to deliver lectures.
  • December 1967: Construction of the Hosseiniye Ershad building is completed.
  • January 1969: Abolhassan Banisadr translates Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth into Persian, which is published anonymously through Mossadegh Press.

1970s

  • January 21-February 8 1970: Khomeini gives a series of nineteen lectures to a group of his Talaba (students) on Islamic Government while he was in exile in Iraq in the holy city of Najaf. Notes of the lectures were soon made into a book that appeared under three different titles: The Islamic Government, Authority of the Jurist, and A Letter from Imam Musavi Kashef al-Qita[5] (to deceive Iranian censors). The small book (fewer than 150 pages) was smuggled into Iran and "widely distributed" to Khomeini supporters before the revolution.[6]
  • Late January 1971: Mostafa Chamran resigns from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and leaves for Lebanon, joining Musa al-Sadr's Amal Movement.
  • June 1971: Under government pressure, Shariati is dismissed from Mashhad University. Leaving his upbringing town of Mashhad for Tehran, he sharpens his ideological focus at Hosseiniyeh Ershad, delivering major lectures such as Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism in the latter half of 1971 and He became a star lecturer whose an audience of thousands packs the main auditorium.
  • August–September 1971: Key leaders and founders of the MEK are arrested by SAVAK and subsequently executed.
  • November 1972: The government forces the closure of Hosseiniyeh Ershad and bans works by Shariati.
  • September 1973: After ten months in hiding, Shariati surrenders and is arrested by SAVAK after they take his father hostage.
  • March 2, 1975: The Shah consolidates and dissolves existing pro-government parties—the Iran Novin Party, the Mardom Party, the Pan-Iranist Party, and the Iranians' Party—to form the monarchist Rastakhiz (Resurrection) Party.
  • March 20, 1975: Imprisoned in Evin Prison, Shariati is released under domestic and international pressure and placed under house arrest. SAVAK pieces together his incomplete manuscripts to publish a fabricated series titled Man, Islam, and Marxism in the state-run daily Kayhan, falsely presenting him as having defected to the royalist.
  • May 1975: Internal schism erupts within the MEK. While leadership remains imprisoned, outside operatives split into a faction loyal to Islamic socialism and a faction converting to Soviet-style Marxism-Leninism, leading to bloodshed including the assassination of Majid Sharif-Vaghefi; the Leninist faction, led by Taghi Shahram and Bahram Aram, eventually breaks away to form Peykar (the Marxist Mujahedin).
  • June 1975: Anniversary of the uprising of 15 Khordad. Students at the Feyziyeh madreseh hold a demonstration within the confines of the building, and a sympathetic crowd assembles outside. Both gatherings continues for three days until they are attacked by military forces, resulting in some casualties. Khomeini reacts with a message in which he declares the events in Qom and similar disturbances elsewhere to be a sign of hope that "freedom and liberation from the bonds of imperialism" is at hand.[1]
  • May 15, 1977: Despite being banned from leaving the country, Shariati evades authorities by omitting "Shariati" from his full name "Ali Shariati Mazinani" and using a passport under "Ali Mazinani" to successfully escape to Brussels, Belgium.
  • June 18, 1977: Ali Shariati dies under suspicious circumstances while in exile in Southampton, United Kingdom.
Arbaeen (40th-day after death) for Shariati held in Beirut, Lebanon.
  • October 23 1977: Mostafa Khomeini, the son of Ayatollah Khomeini, died while the family lived in Najaf. His death led to unfounded rumors of foul play by Shah's regime and became the subject of a "martyrdom" by opponents of Shah's government, and would fuel the growing discontent with the Shah that eventually led to the Iranian Revolution.[7]
  • November 15, 1977: The Shah makes a visit to the United States and meets with Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn. Thousands of Iranian students protest around the White House. Tear gas fired by the U.S. police drifts into the White House lawn, causing chaos during the ceremony.
  • December 31, 1977: Carter visits Tehran and delivers his infamous "island of stability" speech. During a dinner banquet at the Niavaran Palace, he praises the Shah, describing Iran as the only stable country in a turbulent Middle East.

Revolution

1978

  • January 7: An article in the Ettela'at newspaper by the Information Minister Daryoush Homayoun, titled "Black and Red Imperialism" accuses Khomeini of homosexuality and other "misdeeds".[1][8][9][10] Later in his book, Hun claimed that this was done on the Shah's order.[11]
  • January 9: Demonstration of 4,000 students and religious leaders in the city of Qom against the article. The armed police was provoked by the angry demonstrators which resulted in death of between 10 and 72 demonstrators. [citation needed] Protests credited with breaking the "barrier of fear" of security forces "at the popular level". [12]
  • February 18 : Arbayeen (i.e. 40th day observance) of Qom's fallen protesters.[13] Groups in a number of cities marched to honour the fallen and protest against the rule of the Shah. This time, violence erupted in Tabriz. According to some reports approximately 100 demonstrators are killed.[14]
  • March 29: Arbayeen of Tabriz's fallen protesters by demonstrations in various cities. Demonstrators are killed by police in Yazd.[15]
  • May 10: Arbayeen of Yazd's fallen protesters. [citation needed] Demonstrations in various cities.[citation needed] In Qom, commandos "burst into" the home of Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, a leading cleric and quietist, and shoot dead one of his followers right in front of him. Shariatmadari then joins opposition to the Shah.[16]
  • June 6 : Head of SAVAK, Nematollah Nassiri, dismissed and Nasser Moghadam is appointed instead. "First significant concession to the unrest."[17]
  • June 20: 40th day cycle of marking demonstration deaths passes with little violence, thanks to calls by Shariatmadari's for observance in mosques not on the streets. Inflation subsiding. Regime's "carrot and stick" and anti-inflation measures seem to be working.[18]
  • Mid-to-Late July: Musa al-Sadr signals his willingness to act as a mediator through a SAVAK agent stationed in Lebanon. As the Shah accepts his proposal, a meeting is scheduled for September 7 in West Germany between al-Sadr and the Shah's envoy.[19]
  • August 6: Shah pledges free elections by June 1979 in broadcast to the nation.[17]
  • August 12: Killing of demonstrators in Isfahan.[citation needed]
  • August 16 : Jamshid Amouzegar declares martial law in response to vast demonstrations.[citation needed]
The remains of the completely destroyed Cinema Rex after the arson.
  • August 19: 477 die in arson fire at Cinema Rex in Abadan. Regime and opposition blame each other.[20]
  • August 27: Jamshid Amouzegar is replaced by Jafar Sharif-Emami as the prime minister. Sharif Emami "reverses" some of the Shah's policies.[citation needed] Closes casinos (owned by Pahlavi Foundation), abolishes the imperial calendar and declares all the political parties have the right to be active.[21]
  • August 31: Musa al-Sadr disappears in Libya; the circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain a mystery to this day.
  • September 4: Mass march at Eid al-Fitr of hundreds of thousands in Tehran by Khomeini supporters.[citation needed]
Black Friday in Tehran, September 8, 1978.
  • September 8: dubbed "Black Friday" Shah declares martial law in response to protests against Pahlavi dynasty. The military of Iran use force including tanks and helicopters to break up the largely peaceful demonstrators. About 88 demonstrators (including three women) are killed. Opposition leaders falsely spread the death count figures as high as "tens of thousands".[22]
  • September 24: Iraqi government embargoes the house of Khomeini in Najaf and bans his political activities.[1]
  • September 25 (3rd of Mehr): Rastakhiz party is disbanded.[citation needed]
  • October 3: Khomeini leaves Iraq for Kuwait after being pressured by Iran's neighbor Iraq to "tone down his anti-compromise rhetoric".[23] He is refused entry at the Kuwait border.[1]
  • October 6 : Khomeini embarks for Paris.[1]
Khomeini surrounded by international journalists at his residence in Neauphle-le-Château, January 1979.
  • October 10: Khomeini takes up residence in the suburb of Neauphle-le-Château in a house that had been rented for him by Iranian exiles in France, including Abolhassan Banisadr, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, and Ebrahim Yazdi. He enjoys media attention from journalists across the world who come to France to interview him. His image and words became a daily feature in the world's media[1] and is widely praised by Western intellectuals as "Iran's Gandhi."
  • October 11: Strike of Newspapers[24]
  • October 16: Arbayeen of protesters killed on "Black Friday".[citation needed] Some people were killed in the main mosque of Kerman.[citation needed] "A rapid succession of strikes cripple almost all the bazaars, universities, high schools, oil installations, banks, government ministries, post offices, railways, newspapers, customs and post facilities," etc. and "seal the Shah's fate."[25]
  • October 21: Iran Oil industry workers go on strike.[citation needed]
  • October 25: In an attempt to appease public anger, a mass amnesty for political prisoners is granted on the Shah's birthday, releasing over 1,000 inmates including Mohammad-Ali Amoui, Abbas Hazari, Taghi Keymanesh, and Ezzatollah Sahabi.
The people welcoming Taleghani, the ‘Soul of the Revolution’.
  • October 30: Additional political prisoners are released, including Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani and Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
  • Late October: Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari interviews with The New Yorker, describing Iran as a volcano boiling with rage while expressing his moderate stance favoring a return to the 1906 Constitution—granting religious leaders veto power—over the total abolition of the monarchy. He objects to Western media portraying them as anachronistic reactionaries, clarifying that they reject moral decay from rapid Westernization rather than science, medicine, or technology. The interview is published in December 1978.[26]
  • November 4 : Destructive riots frustrated by Shah's unsuccessful attempts at conciliation with his opponents, military hardliners decide to order troops "to stand aside and allow mobs to burn and destroy to their hearts' content." Thousands of shops, banks, restaurants and other public buildings damaged. Conciliatory Prime Minister Sharif-Emami resigns.[27] Army raid in Tehran University, students participating in demonstrations are killed.
  • November 5 : Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi broadcast on television a promise not to repeat past mistakes and to make amends saying, "I heard the voice of your revolution... As Shah of Iran as well as an Iranian citizen, I cannot but approve your revolution."[28][29]
  • November 6: General Gholam Reza Azhari appointed as the prime minister. Enforces martial law. [citation needed]
  • November 8: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrests thirteen prominent members of his own regime. [citation needed]
  • November 11: National Front (Iran) leaders Karim Sanjabi and Dariush Forouhar are arrested while preparing for a press conference denouncing the Shah at Sanjabi's residence.[30]
  • November 19: An additional 210 political prisoners are released.
  • November 27: A wave of mass hysteria spreads nationwide as millions claim to see Khomeini's face on the surface of the moon; even the communist Tudeh Party accepts the story.[31]
  • Late November–Early December: Fearing potential mass riots during the upcoming Ashura, the government makes covert contact with Shariatmadari through former Prime Minister Ali Amini, reaching an agreement where the religious leadership ensures non-violent protests in exchange for the government permitting assemblies and releasing more political prisoners.
  • December 6: Sanjabi and Forouhar, who were arrested on November 11, are released.
  • December 8: The ban on street demonstrations is lifted. Shariatmadari urges his followers to avoid violence.
  • December 10 and 11: Tasu'a and Ashura. As many as 17 million people "up and down the country march peacefully demanding the removal of the Shah and return of Khomeini,"[32] led by Mahmoud Taleghani of the Freedom Movement and Karim Sanjabi of the National Front. 17-point resolution is presented during the demonstration "declaring the Ayatollah to be the leader of the Iranian people," and calling on Iranians to struggle until the Shah is overthrown.[33]
  • December 29: Long-time opposition politician Shapour Bakhtiar was chosen as the prime minister by Shah as the Shah prepares to leave the country. Last prime minister of the Pahlavi dynasty.

1979

Shariati's revolutionary comrades, Mostafa Chamran and Ebrahim Yazdi, with his son Ehsan Shariati at his grave, 1979.
Khomeini and other figures returning to Iran aboard Air France Flight 4721, February 1, 1979.
Khomeini enthusiastically welcomed at his temporary residence, Alavi Islamic High School in Tehran, February 3.
Arafat cheerfully meets with Khomeini.
1979 International Women's Day protests in Tehran.
  • March 8: International Women's Day protests erupt in Tehran, with women's rights activists demonstrating for a week against the new government's mandatory hijab policy.
  • March 17: Kurdish Revolt in Sanandaj,[45] resulting in dozens to over a hundred casualties.
  • March 26 : Turkmen Revolt in Gonbad-e Qabus, leaving around a hundred dead. Valiollah Qarani, the first chief of Army after revolution, dismissed by the Interim Government of Iran under pressure of leftist. Naser Farbod is appointed as his replacement.[46]
  • March 30–31: A referendum on establishing an Islamic Republic is held,[1] boycotted by the National Democratic Front, Fadaiyan-e Khalq, Marxist Mojahedin, and the Kurdish population. Shariatmadari approves the referendum but voices concern over the lack of explanation regarding what an "Islamic Republic" entails, given only a yes/no choice. Meanwhile, secret voting is compromised as yes-ballots are green papers and no-ballots are red papers.
  • March 30: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family arrives in the Bahamas from Morocco.[36]
  • April 1: 98.2% of votes tallied are in favor of an Islamic republic. Islamic republic established.
  • April 12: Khomeinist militias arrest Taleghani's two sons and daughter-in-law.
  • April 15: In a gesture of protest against Khomeini, Taleghani goes into hiding, prompting thousands of his supporters to march and chant, "Taleghani, you are the soul of the revolution!"
  • Mid-April: the Tudeh Party leaders, including Noureddin Kianouri, return to Iran and begin rebuilding their party organization.
  • April 17: Bloody clashes between Kurds and Azeris erupt in Naqadeh.[47]
  • April 19: Khomeini summons Taleghani to Qom to demand submission, later stating to the media that "Mr. Taleghani is sorry for what happened." Displeased, Khomeini refuses to refer to him as an Ayatollah, using the title "Mr. Taleghani" instead.
  • April 20: Valiollah Qarani assassinated by the Forqan group.
  • May 1: Morteza Motahhari, chairman of the Council of the Islamic Revolution, is assassinated by the Forqan Group; Mahmoud Taleghani succeeds him as chairman.
  • May 5: Islamic Revolution Guards Corps established by a decree issued by Ayatollah Khomeini.
  • Mid-May: The Tudeh Party relocates its headquarters to Tehran, officializing the re-establishment of the party.
  • June 5: Early indication of split between Khomeini and non-theocratic intellectuals. In a speech, Khomeini asked: "Who are they that wish to divert our Islamic movement from Islam? ... Intellectuals, do not be Western-style intellectuals, imported intellectuals."[48]
  • June 10: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family arrives in Mexico after being denied a visa extension in the Bahamas[36]
  • June 14: Official preliminary draft of the constitution published.[49] Draft constitution contains Council of Guardians to veto un-Islamic legislation, but no Velayat-e faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists). Khomeini declares it `correct.`[50]
  • June 15: Khomeini attacks liberal and leftwing groups as `counter-revolutionaries` against Islam. Groups had advocated the election of a Constituent Assembly to write the new constitution. "No `Westernized jurists` are needed to write the constitution, only `noble members of the clergy.`"[51] "Campaign launched to popularised the idea of the velayat-e faqih," hitherto virtually unknown to most Iranians.[52]
  • June 17: "Construction Jihad" was established by the order of the Ayatollah Khomeini.[53]
  • August 7: Ayandegan, "the daily newspaper with the widest circulation" in Iran, but "which had agitated against Velayat-e faqih" is banned under new press law for "counter-revolutionary policies and acts."[54]
  • August 10: Khomeini denounces opponents of the Assembly of Experts and defenders of Ayandegan newspaper calling them "wild animals" and saying, "We will not tolerate them any more ... After each revolution several thousand of these corrupt elements are executed in public and burnt ... We will close all parties except the one, or a few which act in a proper manner ..."[55]
  • August 12 : More demonstrations. National Democratic Front schedules a mass demonstration to protest the closure of newspapers like Ayandegan. Demonstration is "viciously attacked by Hezbollah thugs." Shortly thereafter a warrant is issued for the arrest of Hedayat Matin Daftari, one of the National Democratic Front's leaders.[56] Hundreds are injured by rocks, clubs, chains and iron bars. The next day Khomeini supporters attack and loot offices of leftist groups in retaliation for demonstrations.[57]
  • August 15: Kurdish Revolt in Paveh, resulting in hundreds of casualties. Deputy Prime Minister Mostafa Chamran leads special forces in a helicopter assault. Personally commanding urban combat, he suppresses the revolt and emerges as a war hero.
  • August 18 : Assembly of Experts for Constitution which were elected by people, gather to write a new constitution.
The death of Taleghani marks the dissolution of the leftist focal point within the revolutionary regime.
  • September 9: Mahmoud Taleghani, chairman of the Council of the Islamic Revolution, dies suddenly; Mohammad Beheshti succeeds him as chairman. A friend of the left, Taleghani is considered the second most popular ayatollah after Khomeini.
  • October 8: Mostafa Chamran is appointed as Minister of Defense.
  • October 14: Assembly of Experts approves draft of new constitution. In it, Khomeini holds the position of vali-ye faqih, which includes "command of the armed forces" [58]
  • October 22: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is allowed to enter United States for gall bladder treatment. Khomeini speaks out angrily at this "evidence of American plotting." Revolutionary denunciation of the Great Satan (America) intensifies.[59][36]
  • November 1: Prime Minister Bazargan photoed shaking hands with U.S. official Zbigniew Brzezinski at a meeting in Algeria. Radical leftist and theocratic media in Iran alerts the "nation of the return of American influence."[60]
Iranian students climbing over the wall of the U.S. Embassy, November 4, 1979.
  • November 4: Aggressive demonstrations take place near the Embassy of the United States. Embassy awaits instructions from Washington D.C. Hostage crisis takes place in the morning: 500 demonstrators climb over the embassy's fence as the Iranian Police look on. The attack was planned before. Embassy clerks ask for help from the Iranian government which does not come as promised. Embassy guards defend the compound with tear gas because firearms are permitted for use. Secret documents are burned in the embassy. About ninety people are taken hostage of which 66 are Americans.[61]
  • November 5: Iranian government cancels all defence treaties with the United States and Soviet Union.[61]
  • November 6: Mehdi Bazargan, prime minister of The Interim Government of Iran, resigns, "unable to muster" support for "eviction of the students."[60] Khomeini immediately accepts his resignation along with all the other members of his cabinet.
  • November 7: U.S. president Jimmy Carter's appointed delegation arrives to Iran to negotiate to free the hostages.. Members of the delegation are former federal judge Ramsey Clark and William Miller with the intent to negotiate the end of the hostage crisis. Ayatollah Khomeini refuses to see the delegation.[61]
Anti-Iranian protest in Washington, D.C., November 9, 1979.
Ballots for the Iranian constitutional referendum, December 1979.
Pro-Shariatmadari demonstrators in Tabriz.
  • December 6: In Tabriz, the capital of Iranian Azerbaijan, around 50,000 Azeris supporting Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari uprise and seize the broadcasting station, leading to dozens of casualties following a shootout with the Revolutionary Guards.
  • December 15 : Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi leaves the U.S. for Panama[61]
  • December 16 : Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives to Panama[36]
  • December 18 : Mohammad Mofatteh assassinated by Forqan group.

Post-Revolution

Main article: Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution

1980

Americans welcoming the six freed hostage by Canadian diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis, 1980
  • January 28 : Six American diplomats escape with Canadian passports from Iran with help from the Canadian Embassy in Tehran.[61]
  • March–May: The clerical regime excommunicates the MEK as Munafiqin (hypocrites), prompting Hezbollah militants to attack MEK offices and rallies.
  • March 12: Iranian government demands that the Panamanian government arrest the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [36]
  • March 15: First round of elections of first Islamic parliament. Islamic Republican Party mobilises its network among clergy, komitehs and the revolutionary guard. Hezbollah attacks rallies and offices of opposition parties, primarily the Mojahedin-e Khalq, as most other parties have been effectively repressed.[65] The election results for the 270 seats are as follows: the Islamic Republican Party wins 85 seats, the Banisadr faction 33, the Bazargan faction 20, the Sanjabi faction 4, and independents 115. Clerics hold 137 seats, a majority of the 270 total. The left-wing factions fails to win a single seat.
  • March 21: Cultural Revolution in Iran begins. In New Year's speech, Khomeini inveighs against "imperialist universities" where those "cloaked with the West" teach and study. Declares the universities must "become Islamic."[66]
  • March 23: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi leaves Panama to return to Egypt.[36]
  • March 25 : Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to Egypt[61]
  • March–May: Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), are denounced and its rallies and offices are attacked.[67]
  • April 7: U.S. cuts all diplomatic relationship with Iran and puts Iran under economic embargo.[61]
Wreckage of a Delta Force Lockheed EC-130 deployed in Operation Eagle Claw.
  • April 25 : Operation Eagle Claw;Tehran hostage rescue mission fails with the death of eight U.S. soldiers because of sand storm.[68] Khomeini credits divine intervention on behalf of Islam. His prestige is greatly enhanced. Banisadr's is further reduced.[69]
  • April 27: Demonstration led by People's Mujahedin of Iran in Tehran draws 150,000. Chief prosecutor bans the Mujahedeen from demonstrating.[70]
  • June 12: Formation of the university jihad by decree of Ayatollah Khomeini.[71] and The Cultural Revolution to islamization of universities.
  • July: Islamization of state bureaucracy begins. Approximately 20,000 teachers and nearly 8000 military officers are discharged.[72]
  • July 11: Nojeh Coup attempt by a portion of the air force personnels is unsuccessful.[73] They are accused of being loyal to Shah and 121 of them are executed[74]
  • July 11: One hostage is freed for health reasons. 52 hostages are still in the embassy compound.
  • July 27: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi dies in Cairo, Egypt after a cancer operation.[75]
  • August 12: Banisadr forced to accept Mohammad-Ali Rajai as prime minister. Banisadr considers Rajai to be "incompetent", but Rajai has the support of the Islamic Revolution Party.[76]
  • August 25: The trial begins for five perpetrators of the Cinema Rex arson attack, including Hossein Takbalizadeh.
  • September 4: Takbalizadeh and the four other perpetrators are publicly executed in Abadan.
  • 12 September: Khomeini puts new terms to release the hostages; U.S. has to release all of the Shah's currency assets from his American bank accounts. According to the Iranian government, the worth of the foreign assets are about 32 billion U.S. dollars.[61]
  • September 22: Iran–Iraq War starts. Massive invasion of Iran by Iraq following border skirmishes and a dispute over the Arvand Rūd (Persian: اروندرود, literally Arvand River) or as it is known in Iraq the Shatt al-Arab (Arabic: شط العرب, literally Coast/Beach of the Arabs) waterway. Marks beginning of a war that will last eight years.[63]
  • September 30: Operation Scorch Sword. Iran Air Force launches an airstrike on the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center in Iraq, damaging the nuclear reactor.
  • October 26 : Khorramshahr occupied by Iraqis during war.
The Council of the Islamic Revolution, November 1, 1980.

1981

  • January 19: Algiers Accords, between Iran and the United States, mediated by Algeria, to resolve an Iran hostage crisis. In exchange for the release of the hostages by Iran, the United States agreed to unfreeze US$8 billion of Iranian State assets from American banks.[61]
  • January 20: Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as president of the USA: Only 20 minutes from Reagan's oath, Iran releases all 52 hostages who are flown to West Germany via Algeria where former U.S. president Jimmy Carter takes them back to the United States. USA conceded to transfer money, as well as export military equipment to Iran.[77][61]
  • June 7: Operation Opera. The Israeli Air Force conducts an airstrike on the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor. Iran provides assistance and intelligence coordination for the operation.
  • June 8: Abolhassan Banisadr calls for resistance to dictatorship. Khomeini forbids street demonstrations.[70]
  • June 15: Secular factions, including the National Front, publicly condemn the Islamization of the criminal justice system. On the same day, Khomeini issues a fatwa accusing them of ertedad (apostasy).[78]
30 Khordad protests.
The Prime Minister's office completely destroyed by a bomb explosion.

1982

  • February 28: Mousa Khiabani, the second-in-command of the MEK, is killed in a clash with the IRGC during a raid on a safehouse in northern Tehran. His wife Azar Rezaei, and fellow MEK member Ashraf Rabiei are also killed.
Ghotbzadeh defending himself at his trial.
  • April 8: Several politicians, military officers, and clerics, including Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and the son-in-law of Kazem Shariatmadari, are arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate Khomeini. Ghotbzadeh initially denies all charges but, under torture, confesses that Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari was also involved in the plot.
  • April 16: The IRGC surrounds the residence of Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari in Qom. His family members are subsequently arrested and subjected to torture. Shariatmadari is placed under house arrest, which continues until his death in 1986.
  • May 24: Liberation of Khorramshahr. The tide of the Iran–Iraq War turns decisively in favor of Iran.
  • June 6: Israel invades Lebanon with 30,000 troops under the pretext of expelling the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The IRGC provides support to local Shia factions, eventually leading to the creation of Lebanese Hezbollah.
  • June 10: Saddam Hussein unilaterally declares a ceasefire and offers a complete withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Iranian territory. The Iranian government rejects the offer and demands the ouster of Saddam's regime, war reparations, and the opening of Iraqi territory for Iranian troops to march against Israel.
  • June 11: Vladimir Kuzichkin, a KGB major responsible for managing the Tudeh Party and conveying Soviet directives, defects to the United Kingdom. He provides MI6 with the complete network of KGB operatives inside Iran and the Tudeh Party's secret contingency plan to assassinate Khomeini and seize power.
  • July 13: Operation Ramadan begins. Marking one of the largest human wave attack since World War II, Iranian forces launch an invasion into Iraqi territory.
  • September 15: Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is executed by firing squad. His death symbolizes the final purging of the liberal technocrats that had originally contributed to the revolution.
  • December 10: The first election for the Assembly of Experts is held.
  • December 15: Ayatollah Khomeini issues an eight-point command. The decree restricts extrajudicial arrests and house searches while emphasizing Islamic legality and the protection of private property, signaling that the regime has entered a phase of institutional stabilization.
  • Late Autumn–End of the Year: The CIA, having obtained Kuzichkin's intelligence from MI6, shares it with Iran in an effort to rebuild relations following the resolution of the hostage crisis and keep Iran within the anti-communist bloc. This intelligence channel later leads to the Iran–Contra affair.

1983

  • February 6: At dawn, the Revolutionary Guards launch a massive crackdown, arresting over 10,000 Tudeh Party leaders, members, and supporters, including Secretary-General Noureddin Kianouri. The Tudeh Party is officially dissolved, leaving the Islamic Republican Party as the sole functioning political party in Iran.
  • April 30: Noureddin Kianouri makes a televised confession, tearfully admitting that his party had acted as Soviet spies and traitors since 1945. From May to October, members of the Tudeh leadership are consecutively paraded on state television to confess to espionage and praise the superiority of the Islamic theocracy.

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