FROM THE CYBER BACKWATERS:

January 20:
1981 : Iran Hostage Crisis ends

Minutes after Ronald Reagan's inauguration as the 40th
president of the United States, the 52 U.S. captives
held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran, are
released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant
Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government
had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to New
York City for medical treatment, seized the U.S.
embassy in Teheran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's
political and religious leader, took over the hostage
situation, refusing all appeals to release the
hostages, even after the U.N. Security Council
demanded an end to the crisis in an unanimous vote.
However, two weeks after the storming of the embassy,
the Ayatollah began to release all non-U.S. captives,
and all female and minority Americans, citing these
groups as among the people oppressed by the government
of the United States. The remaining 52 captives
remained at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14
months.

President Jimmy Carter was unable to diplomatically
resolve the crisis, and on April 24, 1980, he ordered
a disastrous rescue mission in which eight U.S.
military personnel were killed and no hostages
rescued. Three months later, the former shah died of
cancer in Egypt, but the crisis continued. In November
1980, Carter lost the presidential election to
Republican Ronald Reagan. Soon after, with the
assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful
negotiations began between the United States and Iran.
On the day of Reagan's inauguration, the United States
freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and
the hostages were released after 444 days. The next
day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet the
Americans on their way home.

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