This Day in History: 20 January 2020
20 January 1981
39 years ago, today, the Iran Hostage Crisis ended, minutes after Ronald Reagan is appointed as the 40th President of the United States. This involved the releasing of 52 US captives that were being held at the US embassy in Tehran. The crisis had begun in November 1979, when militant Iranian students became outraged at the fact that the expelled Shah of Iran had received medical treatment in New York City, allowed by the US Government. As a result, the US embassy was seized, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, the political and religious leader of Iran, refused all appeals to release the hostages, even after the UN Security Council demanded an end to the crisis. Despite this, the Ayatollah began to release all non-US and all female and minority American captives two weeks after the seizure, under the basis that these people were those oppressed by the US government. 52 captives remained there for the next 14 months.
The President at the time, Jimmy Carter, was unable to resolve the crisis. In April 1980, he ordered a rescue mission, but this failed horribly. Eight military personnel were killed, and no hostages were saved. Three months after this, the former Shah died in Egypt of cancer, but the crisis continued, and Carter later lost his presidency to Ronald Reagan. Negotiations began, and on the day that Reagan was instituted to office, the hostages were released. Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet these Americans after their release, on their way home. The crisis strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah in Iran, and the power of the theocrats who opposed relations with the West. In addition, the crisis led to American economic sanctions against Iran, weakening ties even further between the countries.
Want to find out more about the events that unfolded during the Iran Hostage Crisis? Clickhere for more details, or to watch a video on the matter, click here.
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