30 Years Ago Today

On February 11th, 1979 supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini took control of the capital city of Tehran, Iran. The Ayatollah had been released only ten days earlier from exile in France. The first week saw over 200 people killed, while citizens seized the police and fire stations, soldiers abandoned their tanks and went home, refusing to defend the old regime. Only eight months later, Islamic students/militants would seize 53 Americans from the US embassy in Tehran. A few months later, Iran would engage Saddam Hussein, after the Iraqi army invaded, in a conflict that would last 8 years and cost over a million Iranian lives. Beyond that, it was a peaceful and inspirational birth of a new nation.