For 444 days 52 American citizens were held captive in the US Embassy after radical students disarmed the guards.
In November 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order freezing all Iranian government assets in the United States and began implementing a host of sanctions on Iran.
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The Iran hostage crisis - Iranian students storming the US Embassy in Tehran.
© Photo : Public domain
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Demonstrators burn an American flag, November 9, 1979, atop the wall of the US Embassy where students have been holding American hostages since November 4.
© AP Photo
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Iranian orphan girls in chadors demonstrating outside the US Embassy in Tehran on November 27, 1979, where 50 hostages have been held by armed students demanding the return of the Shah to stand trial.
© AP Photo / Herve Merliac
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Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, holding a rifle with fixed bayonet addresses large rally November 23, 1979 at Tehran University. Montazeri, who is President of Iran's Ruling Revolutionary Council, said the US hostages would not be set free until the Shah is returned to Iran.
© AP Photo
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The three released American hostages from the US Embassy on November 19, 1979 in Tehran look rather apprehensive as they are driven from a press conference en route to the airport, and thence to freedom. From left: Kathy Gross, 22, from Cambridge Spring, PA, Marine Sgt. Ladell Maples, 23, from Earle, Arkansas; and Marine Sgt. William Quarles, 23 from Washington, DC.
© AP Photo
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Armed Iranian student patrols the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 29, 1979. She is one of the captors holding 49 Americans hostage inside the embassy.
© AP Photo / Herve Merliac
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The Iran Hostage Crisis student demonstration taking place in Washington, DC.
© Photo : Public domain/Trikosko, Marion S.
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Iranian demonstrators burn an effigy of Uncle Sam, branded with CIA on its right arm outside the US Embassy in Tehran, November 13, 1979, during a demonstration in support of the Iranian militants who took over the embassy November 4. About 60 Americans and 40 other nationals are being held inside the embassy.
© AP Photo
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A group photograph of the former hostages in the hospital. The 52 hostages are spending a few days in the hospital after their release from Iran prior to their departure for the United States.
© Photo : Public domain/Johnson Babela
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Recently freed Americans held hostage by Iran disembark Freedom One, an Air Force VC-137 Stratoliner aircraft, upon their arrival at the base.
© Photo : Public domain/Don Koralewski
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Former hostage Richard Morefield gets a kiss from his mother, Maria Morefield, as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, MD. on January 27, 1981 for the official welcome in Washington for the freed hostages.
© AP Photo