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Sandinista guerillas overthrow a right-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua.
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Islamic militants take 52 American hostage inside the US embassy in Iran.
U.S. passes and embargo against selling weapons to Iran. -
Ronald Reagan assumes office; Iranian hostages release the same day.
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Reagan signs and executive order to authorize a covert C.I.A. operation to support the Contras, a right-wing rebel group who seek to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua.
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Evidence of U.S. efforts to overthrow the Sandinistas leaks out to the press, including C.I.A. sabotage manuals.
Congress passes Boland Amendments, barring the use of federal money to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. -
Hezbollah, a political paramilitary group backed by Iran, begins taking hostages in Lebanon to protest the imprisonment by American-backed governments of their allies in other parts of the Middle-East
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Sandinista candidates win national elections in Nicaragua.
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President Reagan approves Robert McFarland's idea to negotiate with Iran for the release of Hezbollah's hostages.
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Reagan administration secretly negotiated to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for help securing the release of American hostages in Lebanon.
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Oliver North, now National Security Advisor, proposes diverting $12 million from the weapons Iran to fund the Contras in Iran.
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McFarland and Oliver North secretly fly to Iran with spare parts for missiles.
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President addresses the nation... "We did not-repeat-did not trade weapons or anything else for hostages nor will we."
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At a White Hose news conference corrects President Reagan statement of denying Israel's involvement by starting there was indeed a third country involved.
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Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, shreds confidential documents.
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The Attorney General discloses the Iran-Contra connection.
President Reagan announces the firing of Oliver North and the other resignations of officials involved with the scandals. -
Congress hold a series of investigations, brings down indictments and hears appeals. In December 1992, President George H.W. Bush pardons six people involved in the scandal, including Mcfarland
