Some Important Events in the History of Iran

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On July 15, 1939, the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Husseini Khamenei, was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran in a religious family. He learned Islamic sciences under his virtuous father, and in 1958 left for the holy city of Qom where he stayed for seven years learning theology, jurisprudence and Islamic philosophy under prominent lecturers such as Grand Ayatollah Seyeed Hussain Boroujerdi, Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussain Tabatabai, and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA).
For a brief period he was in holy Najaf in Iraq, before returning to his hometown Mashhad, where he became a leading preacher, opposed to the oppressive Pahlavi regime. As a result he was detained and exiled on several occasions for disclosing the corruption of the British-installed and US-supported regime. On the threshold of the victory of the Iranian people's movement, he was instated by Imam Khomeini as a member of the Islamic Revolution Council.
Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he was assigned important posts such as the Imam’s representative at the High Defence Council. In 1981, he was elected as president of the Islamic Republic and four years later was re-elected for the second term. In 1981, while preaching in a mosque, he was the target of a terrorist bomb blast, and sustained serious injuries. In June 1989, after the passing away of Imam Khomeini, he was elected as the new Leader of the Islamic Revolution by the Assembly of Experts in view of his piety, prudence, popularity, political acumen, knowledge, managerial skills, and familiarity with current issues in Iran, the region, and the international arena. Over the past 23 years, Ayatollah Khamenei has ably discharged his duties to the benefit of Iran, and the Islamic world.
On July 29, 1694 AD, Shah Sulaiman I, the 8th Emperor of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, died after a reign of 28 years, and was succeeded by his son, Shah Sultan Hussain. Crowned as Shah Safi II on the death of his father, Shah Abbas II, he was brought up in the harem and had little experience of the world outside. He also suffered from poor health. The first year of his reign was markedly unsuccessful. A series of natural disasters, combined with devastating raids by the Cossack Stenka Razin on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast, convinced court astrologers that the coronation had taken place at the wrong time, and the ceremony was repeated on March 20, 1667, with the Shah taking the new name of Sulaiman I. He had little interest in administrative affairs, and left political decision-making to his grand viziers, whose power increased during his long reign. As a result, corruption became widespread and discipline in the army was dangerously lax. The Shah made no attempt to exploit the weakness of Safavid Iran’s traditional rival, the Ottoman Empire after the Ottomans suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. During his reign, Iran also suffered raids by the Uzbeks and Kalmyks.
On August 5, 1906 AD, the movement of the Iranian people led by the ulema forced the Qajarid King, , Mozaffer od-Din Shah to sign the Constitutional Decree that aimed to end injustice, oppression, and the interference of foreign states in Iran’s internal affairs. Prime Minister Ain od-Dowlah’s brutal suppression of public protests had led to the killing and wounding of scores of people. In protest, the ulema led by Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani and Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai, staged sit-ins in Rayy and Qom. The Shah, fearful of the events, dismissed the premier and issued the Constitutional Decree. Later, British agents infiltrated the Constitutional Movement and diverted it from its path.
On July 26, 1944 AD, Reza Khan, whom the British installed as the first Pahlavi king of Iran, died in exile in South Africa at the age of 66 years, three years after being exiled by his masters, the British, for attempts to cooperate with Nazi Germany during World War 2. An illiterate soldier, who was set up as king in Iran by the British after their abolishment of the Qajar dynasty, he terrorized the people of Iran for sixteen years through his anti-Islamic policies that included repression of ulema, banning Iranian men from wearing the traditional, and the forced unveiling of women in public. In 1920, Reza Khan, who was an officer in the Cossack Brigade, was ordered by the British to stage a coup, following which he was appointed as minister of defense and later instated as the premier. Finally, in 1925, he was declared king by the British to implement their policies of imposing decadent western culture on the Iranian people. During World War 2 his pro German views, made the Allied forces converge upon Tehran to replace him by his son, Mohammad Reza. Reza Khan was detained and deported, first to Mauritius and then to South Africa when he died.
On July 21, 1952 AD, massive rallies were staged in Tehran and other Iranian cities in response to a call by senior religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Abul-Qasim Kashani, in protest to the ouster of Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq and the appointment of the pro-British Ahmad Qawwam as premier by the Shah. Although the Pahlavi regime brutally suppressed the peaceful rallies, the Shah was forced to reinstate Mosaddeq as Premier. However, Mosaddeq's folly in alienating Ayatollah Kashani and the masses resulted in his overthrow 13 months later by a US-engineered coup on 19th August 1953 and the return of the fugitive Shah to the Peacock Throne.
On July 27, 1980 AD, the fugitive dictator of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, died in the Egyptian capital, Cairo at the age of 61 years. He was placed on the Peacock Throne in 1941 by the British who deposed his father, Reza Khan, for his pro German policies despite the fact that he owed his rule to Britain. Mohammad Reza loyally served the British and the Americans, who restored him to power in 1953 through a CIA coup following his ouster by the people's uprising during the movement for nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. The US wantonly plundered Iran’s wealth, while Mohammad Reza, acting as their agent, brutally suppressed the Iranian people. In February 1979, with the triumph of the Islamic Revolution under the enlightened leadership of Imam Khomeini (RA), the Pahlavi regime was thrown into the dustbin of history after some 54 years of illegal rule by father and son. In January Mohammad Reza fled Iran, initially to Egypt and thereafter to several other countries. But, these countries did not allow his residence. So he returned to Egypt and died over there.
On July 27, 1988 AD, Mersad Operations started in western Iran to crush MKO terrorists, who launched a wide scale military attack from their bases in Ba'thist Iraq. Equipped with heavy weapons and backed by Saddam, they made a desperate bid to establish some foothold inside Iran through terror tactics, following Iran's acceptance of UN Resolution 598 for ceasefire in the 8-year war imposed by the US. The MKO terrorists’ attack was unrealistic. They imagined they could go even reach Tehran. But, the Iranian forces, supported by the people, surrounded the MKO army and crushed these foreign-funded terrorists.
On July 28, 1989 AD, the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people, in a referendum, approved amendments to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution, as per the instructions of the Late Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini (RA). The amendments included enhancement of the presidential powers and elimination of the post of premiership.
On August 1,1988 AD, the UN fact-finding team to Iran and Iraq, published two reports, announcing that the Ba'th minority regime of Saddam had used chemical weapons against Iran several times during the 8-year US-imposed war. This was the first admission of the UN about the wide-scale use of chemical weapons by the Iraqi army against Iran. Nonetheless, the UN Security Council did not issue any resolution against Saddam’s use of internationally banned chemical weapons against Iran. During the imposed war, Saddam frequently attacked both Iranian combatants and civilians with toxic weapons, but the West which had equipped him with these illegal arsenal, turned a blind eye to his crimes against humanity. For this reason, hours after release of reports by the UN probe team, Iraqi jetfighters chemically bombarded the western Iranian city of Oshnavieh, injuring 2,400 civilians. The UN fact-finding team also confirmed the occurrence of the Iraqi attack that took place after acceptance of ceasefire by Iran.
On 24th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan in 1399 AH, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), took the decisive step of designating the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadhan as the Qods International Day in order to mobilize Muslims for liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas and Palestine. Since then, every year, millions of people in Iran and world countries stage rallies demanding the end of the illegal Zionist entity.
On July 15, 2010 AD, two terrorist bomb blasts at the Jame' Mosque in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan, left 27 people martyred and 169 others wounded, while ceremonies were underway in celebration of the birth anniversary of Imam Hussain (AS), the 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The devilish outfit, which wrongly styles its Jundullah or soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for this cowardly act of terrorism. The Zahedan terrorist bomb blasts occurred a month after the execution of this satanic gang's ringleader, Abdul-Malik Rigi, who admitted his links with the US in his confessions.
On July 17, 1909 AD, Iran’s Constitutional Revolution forced out Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar as king and replaced him by his son, the young Ahmad Shah. The ousted Shah, who had earlier hired Cossack mercenaries to shell the parliament and attack its members, took refuge in the Russian embassy, which was stormed by the angry people, but he managed to escape to Istanbul, Turkey. British agents derailed the Constitutional Revolution from its goal and the result was abolishment of the weak Qajar dynasty in 1925 and installation of the illiterate and brutal soldier, Reza Khan, as king of the Pahlavi regime.
On July 17,1936 AD, the Iranian calligrapher, Mirza Mohammad Hussein Saifi Qazvini, titled “Emad al-Kuttabâ€‌, passed away. In addition to learning the common sciences of his day, he was well versed in Arabic and French, and produced several calligraphic works including “Shahnamahâ€‌, of the renowned Iranian poet, Ferdowsi.
On August 6, 1977 AD, in a bid to avert the Iranian people's growing anger, the Pahlavi Shah dismissed his longtime Prime Minister, Amir Abbas Hovaida, who for thirteen years had carried on the US dictated repressive policies against the Muslim people of Iran. A year and a half later, following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, Hovaida was put on trial, and executed for treason against the Iranian nation.
On August 6, 1987 AD, the Deputy Commander of Islamic Republic of Iran Army’s Air Force, Major General Abbas Babai, was martyred at the age of 37 while on a sortie during the 8-year Iraqi imposed war. He was a committed and courageous pilot. Born in the city of Qazvin, he joined the army and graduated as a pilot. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he pledged allegiance to Imam Khomeini. When the US through Saddam imposed the 8-year war on the Islamic Republic of Iran, he flew on some of the most difficult missions with great skill and success.
On July 18, 1342 AD, Shaikh Hassan Juri, one of the prominent leaders of the Sarbadaran Movement was martyred in the Battle of Zava, near what is now Torbat-e Haideriyeh in northeastern Iran, because of disunity in his ranks. It is said that he was killed by traitors among his own forces, rather than by the opposite side led by Mu'iz od-Din Hussain, the ruler of the Kartid Dynasty of what is now western Afghanistan.
The Sarbadar movement was launched in Khorasan by Imami religious scholar, Sheikh Khalifa Mazandarani, against the repressive rule of the Ilkhanid Mongols, especially the local governor Togha Timur, who was notorious for his cruelty and high taxation of the people. The movement, which was mostly made up of the downtrodden was centered in Sabzavar from where it spread to neighboring cities. Its charismatic leaders included Hassan Juri and later Ali Mu’ayyad, all of whom revived the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
For the next 50 years, the Sarbadar (a Persian term which means, heads bound on gallows, to signify their readiness for martyrdom), ruled most of Khorasan, although not on dynastic basis. They regarded as their spiritual leader, Shaikh Mohammad Jamal od-Din al-Makki al-Ameli of what is now Lebanon, who was subsequently martyred in his homeland by the enemies of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and earned immortality as Shaheed al-Awwal (First Martyr). When Amir Timur swept from Central Asia across Iran ending the Ilkhanid Dynasty, he respected the Sarbadaran and even appointed many Sabzavaris to high posts in Iraq and Iran.
On August 8, 1998 AD, , the terrorist Taliban militia on occupying the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif violated the diplomatic immunity of the Iranian Consulate and martyred eight Iranian diplomats and the IRNA reporter, Mahmoud Saremi. Formed in 1994 in Pakistan with US arms and Saudi money, the Taliban rebels started the civil war to topple the legal government of President Burhan od-Din Rabbani. During their short and barbaric rule, the Taliban tarnished the image of Islam by indulging in medieval European atrocities against the Muslim people, until they were ousted by their own creators, the Americans, in late 2001.
On August 9, 1919 AD, an ominous accord was imposed on Iran by Britain, putting Iran’s military, political, and economic affairs under supervision of British agents. Signed by Iranian premier, Vosouq od-Dowleh and British Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, Iran was virtually turned into a British protectorate, two years after the Bolshevik Revolution that ended Russia’s colonial rivalry with Britain. The Iranian people’s opposition led to the annulment of the scandalous accord, a factor that enraged Britain and made it mastermind a coup some two years later through the illiterate soldier, Reza Khan, to ensure its domination of Iran.
On August 11, 1896 AD, the courageous revolutionary, Mirza Reza Kermani, was hanged and attained martyrdom for his revolutionary execution of the repressive Qajarid king, Naser od-Din Shah. Years earlier, during the Tobacco Movement against British colonialism, he had been jailed for four years on the alleged provoking of people against the regime. Following his release, he went to Istanbul where he became familiar with the exiled pan Islamic Iranian thinker, Seyyed Jamal od-Din Asadabadi. He came to Tehran in 1896 and decided to eliminate Nasser od-Din Shah, who was the root cause of corruption in the country. He carried out his revolutionary act at the shrine of Seyyed Abdul-Azim al-Hasani (AS) in Rayy.
On August 13, 1978 AD, massive rallies were staged by the Iranian people against the Shah’s despotic regime in the central city of Isfahan, making the frightened Pahlavi regime impose martial law on this historical city.