Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (, ; 26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the last Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979. Following the Iranian Revolution, his reign ended the Pahlavi dynasty and the Iranian monarchy's 2,500 year-rule of Persia.

During World War II, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran forced the abdication of his father Reza Shah and succession of Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1953, Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which was carried out by the Iranian military under the support of the United States and Britain.

In 1963, the Shah introduced the White Revolution, a series of reforms aimed at transforming Iran into a global power and modernizing the country by nationalizing key industries and land reform. 26 years after the start of his reign, in 1967, the Shah was crowned as well as his wife Farah, who was the first and so far only woman to be crowned in Iranian history. As political unrest grew throughout Iran in the late 1970s, the Shah fled Iran for exile in January 1979. After formally abolishing the Iranian monarchy, Shia Islamist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became the Supreme Leader of Iran. The former Shah later died in exile in Egypt in 1980 and is buried at the Al-Rifa'i Mosque.

 References 

Category:1919 births
Category:1980 deaths
Category:Shahs of Iran
Category:People from Tehran
Category:Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria