Back in the Day: the Shah flees Iran

January 16, 1979 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, is forced to flee his country by violent protests against him. His removal paved the way for Shia religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to declare an Islamic Republic which is still in power in Iran today. Mohammed Reza became Shah in 1941, largely thanks to the help of the British and Soviets. After WWII he maintained good relations with Britain and the United States, who both had significant oil interests in Iran. In 1953, he tried to force Iranian prime minister and political rival Mohammed Mosaddeq into exile, but he failed and ended up being exiled himself. However British and American intelligence agencies managed to stage a coup that brought Mohammed Reza back to power. In the early and mid 1960s, the Shah pushed through a series of wide-ranging reforms known as the ‘White Revolution’ that sought to modernise Iran and also cement his position as leader. While he enjoyed much popularity abroad, Iranians became increasingly disenchanted with his rule. Nationalists branded him a puppet of the West, while religious classes opposed the secular Shah’s changing of the calendar from Islamic to Persian. High graduate unemployment brought into the streets students who targeted their anger at a privileged elite. Strikes and protests grew, symbols of westernisation were vandalised and eventually the army turned against the Shah. He fled first to Egypt and then to Morocco, the Bahamas and Mexico before going to the US for medical treatment. He eventually returned to Egypt, where he died aged 60 in 1980.

Also on January 16: Ivan IV – Ivan the Terrible – becomes Tsar of Russia (1547); Roman Catholicism is outlawed in England (1581); the Gulf War starts (1991); Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes Africa’s first female head of state after being sworn in as Liberian president (2006).

Born on January 16: André Michelin (1853), Dian Fossey (1932), Sade (1959), Kate Moss (1974).

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