Although Persian culture stretches back millennia, with the Persian empire unified under Cyrus the Great in 549 B.C., the country of Iran is a recent construction. In September of 1907, Britain and Russia – who had dominated much of Iran's trade and internal affairs since the early 19th century – formally divided Persia into two "spheres of influence" and allowed for the development of Iranian constitutional forces and limited autonomy. It wasn't until 1921, however, when Reza Khan seized power, that Iran was able to fully emerge from under Anglo-Russo control.
1921, Feb. 22: Military commander Reza Khan seizes power of Persia in a coup overthrowing theQajar dynasty.
|
1925, Dec. 12: Parliament proclaims Reza Khan (now called Reza Shah Pahlavi) the Shah, ushering in the Pahlavi era.
|
1935: Persia changes its name to Iran.
|
1941: The Shah's pro-Axis sympathies alarm British and Russian authorities, who depose the Shah in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
|
1951: Parliament nationalizes Iran's oil industry. National Front leader Mohammed Mossadegh comes to power, forcing Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to flee.
|
1953, Aug. 22: With British and American backing, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi is returned to the throne in a coup led by General Fazlollah Zahedi.
|
1960s: The Shah begins the "White Revolution," a campaign to modernize Iran with a pro-Western and anti-Communist agenda of land and social reforms. His secular, authoritarian rule is popular with business leaders but breeds resentment amongst the clergy and the rural and urban poor.
|
1964, Nov. 4: Islamic fundamentalist and Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini exiled to Turkey, later to Iraq, where he spends the ensuing 13 years.
|
1978, Nov. 6: Religiously inspired protests lead the Shah to invoke martial law.
|
1979, Jan. 16: Amid growing violence, the Shah and his family are forced into exile.
|
1979, Feb. 1: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran, assuming power and, two months later, proclaiming the Islamic Republic of Iran. The U.S. cuts off diplomatic relations.
|
1979, Nov. 4: Militants assume control of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, sparking an international crisis and taking more than 60 hostages, 52 of whom remained in captivity until Jan. 20, 1981. The captors demand the exiled Shah return to Iran to face trial.
|
1980, July 27: Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi succumbs to cancer in Egypt.
|
1980, Sept. 22: Border and waterway disputes lead Iraq to invade Iran, touching off an eight-year war that kills, by some estimates, as many as one million people.
|
1989, June 3: Ayatollah Khomeini dies and is succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khameini, who continues his predecessor's anti-American, fundamentalist Islamic rule.
|
1997, May 23: Moderate reformist Mohammed Khatami wins the open presidential election, besting the conservative elite and indicating a shift away from fundamentalist control of national politics.
|
2000: Reformists win majority in parliamentary elections for the first time since the Islamic Revolution.
|
2004, Feb. 20: Signaling a return toward conservative rule, Iran holds controversial elections in which conservatives reclaim parliamentary control amid allegations that hard-line leaders have blocked 2,400 reformist lawmakers from running. Iran witnesses a huge decrease in voter turnout as reformists refuse to go to the polls, and Islamic-rule loyalists capture at least 149 seats in the parliament.
|