The Iran Hostage Crisis: The 1980 Election On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages.

Iran hostage crisis, international crisis (1979–81) in which militants seized 66 Americans at the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 of them hostage for more than a year. It took place after Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1978–79 and poisoned U.S.-Iranian relations for decades.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the embassy and detained more than 50 Americans, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior members of the staff, as hostages. The Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days.

What became known as the Iran hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979, when a group of Iranian students in Tehran, the capital of Iran, stormed the American embassy. They trapped fifty-two American workers there, and held them hostage for 444 days.

Washington D.C., November 4, 2019 – On November 4, 1979, a group calling itself the Students Following the Line of the Imam stormed the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized control of the compound, and took several dozen American diplomats, Marine guards, and others hostage.

Here are key moments in the 1979 Iran ian takeover and subsequent 444-day hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Day 1, Nov. 4, 1979 - Iran ian protesters seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 98 people hostage. They demand the United States return the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who is in a New York hospital.