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The Prime Minister Khan overthrows the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, in a military coup. Khan’s regime, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, comes to power.
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Blocking Hassan's way out of the alley were 3 boys, the same 3 from that day on that hill, the day after Daoud Khan's coup, when Hassan had saved us with his slingshot (Hosseini 59)
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The USSR invades Afghanistan on Dec. 24 to bolster the faltering communist regime. On Dec. 27, Amin and many of his followers are executed. Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal becomes prime minister. Widespread opposition to Karmal and the Soviets spawns violent public demonstrations.
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In December 1979, when russian tanks would roll to the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting (36).
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Olympic Games in Moscow.
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In 1980, when we were still in Kabul, the U.S. announced it would be boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow. (126)
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The Ronald Reagan Administration.
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The sort of blue-collar people who would soon suffocate under the pillow Reaganomics pressed to their faces. Baba was the lone Republican in our building. (126)
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If you went from the Shar-e-Nau section to Kerteh-Parwan to buy a carpet, you risked getting shot by a sniper or getting blown up by a rocket-if you got past all the checkpoints, that was. You practically needed a visa to go from one neighborhood to the other. So people just stayed out, prayed the rocket wouldn’t hit their home. (199)
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The Taliban seize control of Kabul and introduce hard-line version of Islam, banning women from work, and introducing Islamic punishments, which include stoning to death and amputations.
