1813-1828 War eventually lost to Russia, with loss of territory.
1906-1911 Constitutional Revolution. Dabashi calls this event the beginning of modern Iran, when the absolute monarchy becomes a constitutional monarchy (71).
1925-1979: Rule of the Pahlavi Royal Family
1934 Establishment of Tehran University, modern and secular.
1936 Veiling of women in public is banned by the Shah.
1941 Second Pahlavi monarch occupies the throne after his father is exiled to South Africa.
1943 Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran; they promise Iran national sovereignty
1951 Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddeq nationalizes the Iranian oil industry,
1953 The US CIA engineers a coup that removes Prime Minister Mosaddeq, and brings the Shah back to power.
1958 The Shah establishes SAVAK, the secret police that act against political dissenters
1963 The White Revolution, initiated by the Shah and supported by President Kennedy, implements further secularization
1963 Ayatollah Khomeini, now Shi’ite leader, challenges the Shah, only to be arrested and exiled to Iraq.
1971 Siahkal uprising, armed struggle against the Shah by socialists.
1971 The Shah celebrates 2500 years of Persian monarchy.
1973 Iran doesn’t participate in the Arab oil embargo, which means tremendous profits for the Shah.
December 31, 1977 President Jimmy Carter on a visit to Iran proclaims Iran “an island of stability in an otherwise troubled Middle East”
1978 Increasing large public demonstrations against the Shah signify opposition of urban guerrilla movements and the clerics.
1979 The Shah leaves the country on January 16
1979 January 19, a million Iranians celebrate in Tehran
February 1, 1979 Khomeini returns in triumph to Iran and appoints Mehdi Bazargan
November 4, 1979 Militant students seize the American embassy in Tehran and hold 52 American diplomats hostage there for 444 days
1980 January 25, the first Iranian president, Abu al-Hassan Bani-Sadr
1980 In September, Saddam Hussein invades Iran
1988 July 20 Iran accepts a UN-sponsored peace treaty that ends the war with Iraq.
1989 Khomeini dies and is succeeded by Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani becomes president
1990 August Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, First Gulf War, repulsed by American forces.
1997 Mohammed Khatami elected president,
2002 President Bush designates Iran, along with Syria and North Korea, as the Axis of Evil
2003 March the US invades Iraq
2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes president of Iran.
