CNN - Almanac - April 30, 1998 Today is Israel's 50th anniversary. On the horizon On Friday, May 1, much of the world marks International Labor Day, or May Day. On Saturday, May 2, the Kentucky Derby, the first in racing's Triple Crown, is to be held in Louisville, Kentucky. On Sunday, May 3, the National Cable Television Association opens its annual convention in Atlanta. On Monday, May 4, the Kent State Students Memorial Day will be observed. On Tuesday, May 5, NATO chiefs of staff meet in Brussels. On this day In 311, Galerius Valerius Maximianus issued an edict under which Christians were legally recognized in the Roman Empire. In 1777, Johann Karl Freidrich Gauss, regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, was born in Germany. In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as America's first president. In 1803, France agreed to sell Louisiana to America; on the same date in 1812, it joined the United States as the 18th state.

In 1804, shrapnel, named after the British soldier Henry Shrapnel, was used for the first time in warfare by the British against the Dutch in Suriname. In 1883, Edouard Manet, French painter, died. Originally destined for a legal career, he studied art from 1850 and was heavily influenced by Claude Monet. In 1900, American railroad engineer Casey Jones died saving passengers as the Cannonball Express was about to crash. In 1909, Juliana, queen of the Netherlands, was born; she was queen from 1948 until 1980, when she abdicated in favor of her eldest daughter, Beatrix. In 1934, under a new constitution in Austria, a dictatorship was established. In 1945, Adolf Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin; Russian troops penetrated central Berlin, capturing the Reichstag and other government buildings; Allied troops captured Munich and the French crossed the border into Austria. In 1946, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden was born.

King since 1973, he had much of his constitutional powers taken away by the Social Democrats who pledged to eventually end the monarchy. In 1973, President Richard Nixon accepted responsibility for the bugging that took place in 1972 at the Watergate apartment complex; on the same date in 1974, he handed over partial transcripts of tape recordings to the impeachment inquiry. In 1975, in South Vietnam, President Minh announced an unconditional surrender to the Vietcong. In 1980, in London, armed gunmen seized the Iranian embassy demanding the release of political prisoners in Iran; the siege lasted six days. In 1982, Alvaro Magana was chosen to succeed Jose Napoleon Duarte as president of El Salvador. In 1989, 500,000 people attended a papal mass in Madagascar where Pope John Paul II beatified Victoire Rasoamanarivo, a 19th century Madagascar woman. In 1990, American hostage Frank Reed was freed in Lebanon after nearly four years in the hands of pro-Iranian kidnappers.

In 1991, Major-General Justin Lekhanya, Lesotho's military strongman, was ousted in an army coup. In 1992, NATO appointed U.S. General John Shalikashvili as the new commander of its forces in Europe. In 1992, mutinous soldiers in Sierra Leone overthrew President Joseph Momoh in a coup. In 1997, Tajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmonov survived an assassination attempt in which two other people were killed and 60 were injured. Newslink Happy birthday to the Netherlands' Queen Beatrix! Submerge yourself in all things Dutch by visiting the Flying Dutchman. Notable Aruba and the Netherlands celebrate the Queen's Birthday. Vietnam celebrates Coronation Day. Iran Summons British Envoy Over Freeing Of Gunman Iran Summons British Envoy Over Freeing Of Gunman October 13, 2008 Email to a Friend Print TEHRAN (Reuters) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned Britain's ambassador to protest the release from prison of the only surviving member of a group of gunmen who seized the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980, media said.

British newspapers reported on October 10 that Fowzi Badavi-Nejad, 50, would be freed within days after serving 27 years in jail. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari summoned British Ambassador Geoffrey Adams on October 12 in protest at a "condemnable and indefensible" act, which raised serious questions about Britain's sincerity in its ties with Iran, the "Tehran Times" reported. The official IRNA news agency said Safari delivered a "strong protest" over the "release of a terrorist," according to BBC monitoring. Britain's embassy was not immediately available for comment. Six gunmen seized the Iranian Embassy in London in April 1980, demanding the release of prisoners in Iran and taking 21 hostages, two of whom they killed. The dramatic six-day siege ended when elite SAS troops stormed the building and rescued 19 hostages, killing five gunmen. Badavi-Nejad, the only surviving member of the group, was given a life sentence in 1981, but Britain's "The Guardian" newspaper on October 10 quoted his lawyer as saying a parole board had concluded he was no longer a threat to society and had ruled he could be released.

Britain's "The Times" newspaper reported that Iran wants Badavi-Nejad returned to Tehran to face trial in connection with the 1980 siege but that Britain had blocked his deportation because it had not received assurances that he would not face the death penalty in Iran. The Iranian Embassy in London said in a statement on October 11 that the decision to release Badavi-Nejad would have "negative impacts on relations" between Iran and Britain. British officials declined to comment on the case last week. Britain and Iran are at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but which the West fears is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. In May, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Adams to protest a decision by three British judges to uphold a ruling that the British government was wrong to ban an Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization. The Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization won a seven-year legal battle when three senior judges at Britain's Court of Appeal dismissed a government challenge to the earlier ruling.

RFE/RL Iran Report Iran embassy SAS man John McAleese dies - BBC News BBC News Iran embassy SAS man John McAleese dies 30 August 2011 Close share panel Image caption John McAleese, known as Johnny Mac, was one of the first into the embassy Ex-SAS soldier John McAleese, who took part in the raid ending the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, has died. Mr McAleese, who was in his early 60s, died on Friday in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Foreign Office said. His team rescued 24 hostages from gunmen who took over the building in London. His daughter said he had been reunited with his son, a soldier killed in Afghanistan. "Two great heroes taking their place in heaven," she said. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are aware of the death of John McAleese, a hero who served his country bravely and professionally in a military career that spanned many years. "Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time." Millions of television viewers watched SAS teams, dressed in black, storm the embassy on 5 May 1980 to end the six-day siege.

Six Iranian separatists had taken over the embassy and were demanding the release of 91 political prisoners held in Iran, as well as an aircraft to take them and 26 hostages out of the UK. Then Home Secretary William Whitelaw ordered the SAS attack after the gunmen shot dead Iranian press attache Abbas Lavasani and dumped his body outside the building. During the SAS operation, five of the gunmen and one of the remaining hostages were killed. The overall commander of the operation was Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rose, commander of 22 SAS, who later became a General and was the commander of British forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1994. Heart attack Hayley, 28, said her father - who went on to present the BBC programme SAS: Are You Tough Enough? - never got over the death of his son, Sergeant Paul McAleese, 29, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009 as he went to help a fatally injured colleague. She told reporters: "I am sure the grief and stress he had suffered had a bearing on what has happened." It is understood John McAleese suffered a suspected heart attack.

Tributes have been posted on his Facebook page. One read: "RIP JOHN...JOINED WITH YOUR SON...2 BRAVE AND REMARKABLE MEN...THOUGHTS ARE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY..." Another said: "rest in peace john,......another soldier reporting for duty at the gates of st peter. at least now he can be with his son paul, R.I.P true scotsman. true soldier and a true legend of a man :(" Update 30 August 2011: This report has been amended to clarify that while John McAleese played a leading role in events at the embassy, he was not the operation commander. On This Day in History, May 5 On This Day in History Home On This Day On This Day in History, May 5 On This Day in History, May 5 What Happened On This Day – May 5 1980 The British Special Air Service (SAS) terminate the Iranian Embassy siege in London Six gunmen had held 26 people hostage for six days, demanding the release of Iranian Arab prisoners. Two of the hostages were killed.

1955 West Germany regains full sovereignty after World War II The Federal Republic of Germany had been established in 1949. Its provisional capital was Bonn. After the 1990 reunification of East and West Germany, Berlin was declared the country's capital. 1949 The Council of Europe is founded The organization was the first to work for European integration. It has 47 member countries and is a completely separate entity from the European Union (EU). 1934 The first Three Stooges film is released The comedy trio soon became famous, especially in the U.S., for their short films featuring slapstick humor. 1904 Cy Young pitches the first perfect game in modern major league baseball A game is considered perfect when none of the opposing players reaches the first base. Young's team, the Boston Americans, won 3-0 over the Philadelphia Athletics Middle Eastern 'gunmen' sweep through London for Iranian Embassy siege film 6 Days | Daily Mail Online comments The all-star cast of a new film based on the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege have been shooting scenes in London .

Actor Jamie Bell, who previously starred in Billy Elliot and Hallam Foe, has taken the lead role in the film ‘6 Days’, based on the dramatic six-day siege. Mark Strong (The Imitation Game) and Australian Abbie Cornish (Seven Psychopaths) will star alongside Bell in the film, which is set for 2016 release. Director Toa Fraser is taking his inspiration from the real events of the 1980 siege, when six armed gunmen took over the Iranian Embassy in South Kensington, London. Scroll down for video Setting the scene: An actor playing one of the six gunmen involved in the Iranian Embassy siege, in April 1980, outside the Embassy building in South Kensington Real events: A group of six gunmen took the Iranian Embassy in April 1980, along with 26 hostages The gunmen took the 26 people inside the building at the time hostage, prompting a tense six-day stand-off. Between April 30 and May 5, the eyes of the nation watched for signs of movement from within the terrorised property. The gunmen were members of an Iranian Arab group campaigning for greater sovereignty for their southern Khuzestan province.

They held the hostages, demanding the release of prisoners in Iran and their own safe passage out of Britain. Director Fraser has employed the services of several former SAS members as consultants for the film. Action: Actors Jamie Bell, Mark Strong and Abbie Cornish are set to star in the film, which is due for release in 2016 On a mission: The eyes of the nation watched the South Kensington building, as the gunmen held it for six days Tension: The SAS took charge during Operation Nimrod, hoping to reclaim the building and rescue the gunmen The siege catapulted the SAS to notoriety within the UK, after they carried out a heroic raid on the sixth day of the stand-off. Waiting SAS members were ordered to launch the Operation Nimrod assault on the Embassy building, by home secretary William Whitelaw. The move was prompted when the gunmen, growing impatient, killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the window. Millions of people watched the rescue live on TV – which interrupted coverage of the World Snooker Championships – as the crack squad of highly-trained military elite charged the building.

RELATED ARTICLES Share 309 shares Ready for action: The SAS raid on the building was televised - interrupting the coverage of the World Snooker Championships - and was watched by millions of viewers across the nation Scene: Actors and extras gather on the steps outside the building, waiting for the action to begin ‘Blue Team’, led by SAS soldier Bob Curry, were waiting around the back of the building. Curry was force to smash open a window at the back with a sledgehammer, after kicking aside an explosive that was intended to knock out the window but had failed to go off. Meanwhile ‘Red Team’ abseiled down the front of the building to enter through the second-floor windows. The nation held its breath as SAS Sergeant John McAleese perched precariously on a ledge to place explosive charges that blew out the embassy’s front windows.

Attack: SAS members were ordered to launch the Operation Nimrod assault on the Embassy building, by home secretary William Whitelaw Target: The move was prompted when the gunmen, growing impatient, killed one of the hostages and threw his body from a window Historic: The SAS squad killed five of the six gunmen during the raid, while the survivor served 27 years in British prisons Inspiration: The 17-minute televised mission became a seminal moment in SAS history, prompting a wave of applications by hopefuls inspired by the footage A crack squad of more than 30 masked troops then stormed the building, shooting dead five of the gunmen and arresting the survivor. The 17-minute televised mission became a seminal moment in SAS history, prompting a wave of applications by hopefuls inspired by the footage. The operation was more than just a spectacular military success - it was played out live on television, something that had never happened before, leaving a whole nation glued to their television screens. Pierce Noonan, director of Dix Noonan Webb Mr Curry wrote in his autobiography: ‘We waited for the big bang. It did not happen. ‘Instead I got a slap on the head from one of the team. Go, go. I thought it must have been a misfire.

‘I kicked the charge out of the way thinking “Well, if it goes off, I won’t know anything about it, I’ll be all over the park”. ‘And then I started to make an entry point through the window to my front. It had wooden shutters behind it, which were closed, and heavy draped curtains behind those. ‘It didn’t take me long, as obviously the adrenalin was rushing… I climbed in. We were in.’ Pierce Noonan, director of auction house Dix Noonan Webb, said: 'This small group of highly-trained soldiers was responsible for quite literally exploding the SAS into the modern era. 'The operation was more than just a spectacular military success - it was played out live on television, something that had never happened before, leaving a whole nation glued to their television screens. 'Prior to the events of that day few of that generation would have been aware of the existence of the Special Air Service - by the following day everyone had heard of them and they were the envy of the world.' Terror: Although one hostage was killed during the raid, the remaining 19 were able to walk free.

Five had previously been freed in exchange for minor concessions, such as broadcasting the group's demands on television Explosion: SAS soldiers used explosives to knock out the windows on the second floor to gain entry, after abseiling from the roof Success: SAS men wait to enter the Embassy, which saw more than 30 armed soldiers enter the building in a televised raid After the raid, the surviving hostages and the one remaining terrorist, who was disguised among the hostages, were taken into the embassy’s back garden and restrained until the final gunman could be identified. In the course of the raid, one of the original 26 hostages was killed, but 19 were successfully released. The remaining five hostages had been released in the days leading up to the raid, traded for minor concessions, such as broadcasting the gunmen’s demands on television. The arrested gunman served 27 years in British prisons. Iranian Embassy in the United Kingdom - Worst Embassy Attacks - TIME Iranian Embassy in the United Kingdom AFP / Getty April 30, 1980 While Iranians held American hostages at the U.S.

Embassy in Tehran, six Iranian gunman  protesting oppression in their country by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had recently come to power  stormed Iran's embassy in London and took 26 people hostage, demanding that Tehran release 91 political prisoners. The gunmen freed several hostages in the days that followed, but on the sixth day, after the gunman killed their first hostage and pushed his body out the door of the Embassy, British special forces stormed the building and killed the militants. Iran turns logic on embassy takeover upside down - CSMonitor.com Iran turns logic on embassy takeover upside down By Ned Temko, Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor May 5, 1980 Save for later Saved Tehran, Iran — If Iran's diplomats in London have to die, they have to die, President Abolhassan Bani- Sadr reportedly told a cheering throng in central Iran. But the government will not give in to gunmen using a seized embassy for blackmail. In Western eyes, Iran's response to the April 30 attack on its London embassy could not help but seem a confirmation of the Islamic revolution's disregard for human life and its utter lack of political consistency or logic.

The seisure of the American Embassy here is, after all, seen as just fine. Yet in a peculiarly "Islamic and Iranian" context -- the only one in which much of what has happened here over the past 15 months makes sense -- the Iranians reaction is rigidly logical, a confirmation of the regime's central themes of Muslim "martyrdom" and all-consuming enmity toward the United States. Photos of the Day Photos of the day 02/08 Iranian officials seemed almost nonchalant about the plight of their London Diplomats, taken by gunmen demanding freedom for dozens of ethnic Arab prisoners in southern Iran. President Bani-Sadr, out of Tehran when the first deadline for killing the Iranian hostages expired, made no visible effort to hurry back. nor did Foreign Minister Sadeq Ghotbzadeh, who was on a tour of Gulf States. When the President and Foreign Minister did finally react, their messages were much the same: The government was prepared to accept the "martyrdom" of its own diplomats rather than bow to terrorist pressure tactics. If "so much as a single drop of blood is spilled from the nose of a single hostage," Mr.

Ghotbzadeh added, the government would try to execute the very prisoner the attackers were seeking to free. To Westerners, the righteous indignation was bound to seem a little misplaced in a regime that has actively supported the hostage- holding in Tehran. Yet revolutionary Iran's opposition to the United States has taken on a logic of its own. Thus, the London attack by gunmen identified as Arab-speaking Iranians was promptly blamed on neighboring Iraq, a country that has no diplomatic relations with Washington but is branded here as an American "lackey." Asked at a May 3 news conference whether there might be a parallel between the embassy attacks in London and Tehran, Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh shot back: "None whatsoever. In Iran, this is a reaction against 25 years of oppression and plundering" by the United States and its "Zionist" allies. "Over there [in London] it is a clear-cut conspiracy by the same powers against the young Islamic republic of Iran." The reasoning falls on symphatetic ears here, particularly among the Muslim militants and the largely illiterate poor who power Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution.

The idea of "martyrdom" is etched deeply in their Shiite brand of Islam, and perhaps reinforced by their earthly poverty. Each year, the faithful take to the streets in a symbolic ritual of self-flagellation celebrating the battlefield "martyrdom" of Imam Hussein centuries ago near the holy city of Karbala, in what is now Iraq. Anti-Americanism is of more recent vintage, whipped up with references to CIA involvement in a 1953 Tehran uprising and to the hardly arguable American support for the regime of the deposed Shah. But this theme, too, has its historical roots. Almost ever since Alexander The Great defeated the first Persian empire some three centuries before the birth of Christ, its historical heirs have been battling foreign invaders. President Bani-Sadr perhaps put it best, in his acrobatic "celebration" of Washington's formal break in diplomatic and trade relations with Iran early last month. Mr. Carter, said the Iranian President, "does not know the psychology of our nation.

The story of our nation is the story of resistance to foreigners.Our folklore and our literature are full of tales of our long and continuing struggle against foreign influences." Thus Ayatollah Khomeini could, May 2, all but welcome the idea of military action against Iran. "If a martyr's place is in heaven [as the Koran says it is] what does he fear?" asked the Ayatollah. "The most they [Americans] can do is to kill us." Monitor correspondent Rushworth M. Kidder reports from London: The gunmen holding some 20 hostages in the Iranian Embassy in London had, at his writing, released two more captives -- a Pakistani and the wife of a Tanzanian. The gunmen said that the safety of the captives would be assured if the ambassadors of Algeria, Jordan, and Iraq, with a Red Cross official, began negotiations with them and the British government. Iranian foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh warned that his government could call on Iranian students in London to storm the embassy if the situation deterioted.

Next up Iranian Embassy siege | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Day of Rage (2011) The Iranian Embassy siege took place from 30 April to 5 May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The gunmen took 26 people hostage—mostly embassy staff, but several visitors and a police officer, who had been guarding the embassy, were also held. The hostage-takers, members of an Iranian Arab group campaigning for Arab national sovereignty in the southern region of Khūzestān Province , demanded the release of Arab prisoners from jails in Khūzestān and their own safe passage out of the United Kingdom. [1] The British government quickly resolved that safe passage would not be granted, and a siege ensued. Over the following days, police negotiators secured the release of five hostages in exchange for minor concessions, such as the broadcasting of the hostage-takers' demands on British television. By the sixth day of the siege the gunmen had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in meeting their demands. That evening, they killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy.

As a result, the British government ordered the Special Air Service (SAS), a special forces regiment of the British Army , to conduct an assault to rescue the remaining hostages. Shortly afterwards, soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows. During the 17-minute raid, the SAS rescued all but one of the remaining hostages, and killed five of the six terrorists. The soldiers subsequently faced accusations that they unnecessarily killed two of the terrorists, but an inquest into the deaths eventually cleared the SAS of any wrongdoing. The remaining terrorist was prosecuted and served 27 years in British prisons. The hostage-takers and their cause were largely forgotten after the Iran–Iraq War broke out later in 1980 and as the hostage crisis in Tehran went on, but the operation brought the SAS to the public eye for the first time and bolstered the reputation of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher . The SAS was quickly overwhelmed by the number of applications it received from people inspired by the operation and, at the same time, experienced greater demand for its expertise from foreign governments.

It was not until 1993 that 16 Princes Gate, having suffered major damage from a fire that broke out during the assault, was reopened as the Iranian embassy. Contents Main article: 1979 Khuzestan uprising The front of the Iranian embassy in 2008 The hostage-takers were members of the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRFLA)—Iranian Arabs protesting for the establishment of an autonomous Arab state in the southern region of the Iranian province of Khūzestān [2] (also known as Arabistan ) which is home to an Arabic-speaking minority. The oil-rich area had become the source of much of Iran's wealth, having been developed by multi-national companies during the reign of the Shah. Following the events of the Iranian revolution , Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties revolted in some regions comprising Khuzestan , Kurdistan and Gonbad-e Qabus , which resulted in fighting between various rebel groups and revolutionary forces. The largest rebellion by the Kurds unfolded in the West (Iranian Kurdistan), though the Pasdaran were also confronted by Arabs, Turkomans and Baluchs.

These revolts began in April 1979 and lasted between several months to over a year, depending on the region. [3] According to Oan Ali Mohammed, [note 1] suppression of the Arab sovereignty movement were the spark that led to his desire to attack the Iranian Embassy in London—a plan inspired by the Iran hostage crisis in which supporters of the revolution held the staff of the American embassy in Tehran hostage. [2] [5] [1] Arrival in London Edit Using Iraqi passports, Oan and three other members of the DRFLA arrived in London on 31 March 1980 and rented a flat in Earls Court . They claimed they had met by chance on the flight. The men typically returned to the flat drunk, late at night, and sometimes accompanied by prostitutes. Within a week, the housekeeper asked them to leave. They soon found another flat, where they told their new landlord they were moving because they had been joined by other men and required larger accommodation. Over the following days, the group swelled, with up to a dozen men in the flat on one occasion.

[6] Oan was 27 and from Khūzestān; he had studied at the University of Tehran , where he became politically active. He had been imprisoned by SAVAK , the Shah's secret police, and bore scars which he said were from torture in SAVAK custody. The other members of his group were Shakir Abdullah Radhil, known as "Faisal", Oan's second-in-command who also claimed to have been tortured by SAVAK; Shakir Sultan Said, or "Hassan"; Themir Moammed Hussein, or Abbas; Fowzi Badavi Nejad, or "Ali"; and Makki Hanoun Ali, the youngest of the group, who went by the name of "Makki". [7] [8] On 30 April the men informed their landlord that they were going to Bristol for a week and then returning to Iraq, stated that they would no longer require the flat, and arranged for their belongings to be sent to Iraq. They left the building at 09:30 ( BST ) on 30 April.

[9] Their initial destination is unknown, but en route to the Iranian Embassy they collected firearms (including pistols and submachine guns ), ammunition and hand grenades. The weapons, predominantly Soviet-made, are believed to have been smuggled into the United Kingdom in a diplomatic bag belonging to Iraq. [10] Shortly before 11:30, and almost two hours after vacating the nearby flat in Lexham Gardens in South Kensington, the six men arrived outside the embassy. [9] Special Air Service Edit The Special Air Service (SAS) is a regiment of the British Army and part of the United Kingdom's special forces . The regiment was formed by Colonel David Stirling in Africa in 1941, at the height of the Second World War. Its original role was to penetrate enemy lines and strike at airfields and supply lines deep in enemy territory, first in North Africa and later around the Mediterranean and in occupied Europe. Stirling established the principle of using small teams, usually of just four men, to carry out raids—having realised that a four-man team could sometimes prove much more effective than a unit of hundreds of soldiers. [11] Western governments were prompted to form specialist anti-terrorist units following the " Munich massacre ".

During the 1972 Olympic Games, a firefight between a group of hostage-takers and West German police left a police officer and all the hostages dead. The British government, worried that the country was unprepared for a similar crisis in the United Kingdom, ordered the formation of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) Wing of the SAS, which became the UK's primary anti-terrorist and anti-hijacking unit. The SAS had taken part in counter-insurgency operations abroad since 1945, and had trained the bodyguards of influential people whose deaths would be contrary to British interests. Thus, it was believed to be better prepared for the role than any unit in the police or elsewhere in the armed forces. The CRW Wing's first operational experience was the storming of Lufthansa Flight 181 in 1977, when a small detachment of soldiers were sent to assist GSG 9 —the elite West German police unit set up after the events of 1972. [12] Siege Edit At approximately 11:30 on Wednesday, 30 April the six heavily armed members of DRFLA stormed the Iranian Embassy building on Princes Gate, South Kensington.

The gunmen quickly overpowered Police Constable Trevor Lock of the Metropolitan Police 's Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG). Lock was carrying a concealed Smith & Wesson .38-calibre revolver, [13] but was unable to draw it before he was overpowered, although he did manage to press the "panic button" on his radio. Lock was later frisked, but the gunman conducting the search did not find the constable's weapon. He remained in possession of the revolver, and refused to remove his coat—which he told the gunmen was to "preserve his image" as a police officer—in order to keep it concealed. [14] The officer also refused offers of food throughout the siege for fear that the weapon would be seen if he had to use the toilet and a gunman decided to escort him. [15] Although the majority of the people in the embassy were captured, three managed to escape—two by climbing out of a ground-floor window and the third by climbing across a first-floor parapet to the Ethiopian Embassy next door.

A fourth person, Gholam-Ali Afrouz—the chargé d'affaires and thus the most senior Iranian official present—briefly escaped by jumping out of a first-floor window, but was injured in the process and quickly captured. Afrouz and the 25 other hostages were all taken to a room on the second floor. [16] The majority of the hostages were embassy staff—predominantly Iranian nationals, but several British employees were also captured. The other hostages were all visitors, with the exception of Lock, the British police officer tasked with guarding the embassy. Afrouz had been appointed to the position less than a year before, his predecessor having been dismissed after the revolution. Abbas Fallahi, who had been a butler before the revolution, was appointed the doorman by Afrouz. One of the British members of staff was Ron Morris, from Battersea , who had worked for the embassy in various positions since 1947. [17] During the course of the siege, police and journalists established the identities of several other hostages.

Mustapha Karkouti was a journalist covering the crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran and was at the embassy for an interview with Abdul Fazi Ezzati, the cultural attaché. [18] Muhammad Hashir Faruqi was another journalist, at the embassy to interview Afrouz for an article on the Iranian Revolution. Sim Harris and Chris Cramer, both employees of the BBC, were at the embassy attempting to obtain visas to visit Iran—hoping to cover the aftermath of the 1979 revolution—after several unsuccessful attempts. They found themselves sitting next to Moutaba Mehrnavard, who was there to consult Ahmad Dadgar, the embassy's medical adviser, and Ali Aghar Tabatabal, who was collecting a map for use in a presentation he had been asked to give at the end of a course he had been attending. [19] Hostage Zomorrodian ! Zahra Zomorrodian Embassy clerk Police arrived at the embassy almost immediately after the first reports of gunfire, and, within ten minutes, seven DPG officers were on the scene. The officers moved to surround the embassy, but hastily retreated when a gunman appeared at a window and threatened to open fire.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Dellow arrived nearly 30 minutes later and took command of the operation. [20] Dellow established a temporary headquarters in his car before moving it to the Royal School of Needlework further down Princes Gate and then to 24 Princes Gate, a nursery school. [21] From his various command posts, Dellow coordinated the police response, including the deployment of D11 , the Metropolitan Police's marksmen, [note 2] and officers with specialist surveillance equipment. Police negotiators made contact with Oan via a field telephone passed through one of the embassy windows, and were assisted by a negotiator and a psychiatrist. At 15:15 Oan issued the DRFLA's first demand, the release of 91 Arabs held in prisons in Khūzestān, and threatened to blow up the embassy and the hostages if this was not done by noon on 1 May. [23] [24] Large numbers of journalists were on the scene quickly and were corralled into a holding area to the west of the front of the embassy, [25] while dozens of Iranian protesters also arrived near the embassy and remained there throughout the siege.

[26] Shortly after the beginning of the crisis, the British government's emergency committee COBRA , [note 3] was assembled. COBRA is made up of ministers, civil servants and expert advisers—including representatives from the police and the armed forces. The meeting was chaired by William Whitelaw , the Home Secretary, as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was unavailable. The Iranian government accused the British and American governments of sponsoring the attack as revenge for the ongoing siege of the US Embassy in Tehran. Given the lack of co-operation from Iran, Thatcher—who was kept apprised of the situation by Whitelaw—determined that British law would be applied to the embassy, despite the Vienna Convention , under which the embassy is considered Iranian soil. [28] At 16:30, the gunmen released their first hostage, Frieda Mozaffarian. She had been unwell since the siege began, and Oan had asked for a doctor to be sent into the embassy to treat her, but the police refused. The other hostages deceived Oan into believing that Mozaffarian was pregnant, and Oan eventually decided to release Mozaffarian after her condition deteriorated.

[29] Day two: 1 May Edit The COBRA meetings continued through the night and into Thursday. Meanwhile, two teams were dispatched from the headquarters of the Special Air Service (SAS) near Hereford, and arrived at a holding area in Regent's Park Barracks . The teams—from B Squadron, complemented by specialists from other squadrons—were equipped with CS gas, stun grenades, and explosives and armed with Browning Hi-Power pistols and Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns. [note 4] [31] Lieutenant Colonel Michael Rose , commander of 22 SAS had travelled ahead of the detachment and introduced himself to Dellow, the commander of the police operation. At approximately 03:30 on 1 May, one of the SAS teams moved into the building next door to the embassy, normally occupied by the Royal College of General Practitioners , where they were briefed on Rose's "immediate action" plan—to be implemented should the SAS be required to storm the building before a more sophisticated plan could be formed.

[32] The front of 14 Princes Gate, head office of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which was used as a base by the SAS during the siege. Early in the morning of 1 May, the gunmen ordered one of the hostages to telephone the BBC's news desk. During the call, Oan took the receiver and spoke directly to the BBC journalist. He identified the group to which the gunmen belonged and stated that the non-Iranian hostages would not be harmed, but refused to allow the journalist to speak to any other hostages. [33] At some point during the day, the police disabled the embassy's telephone lines, leaving the hostage-takers just the field telephone for outside communication. [34] As the hostages woke up, Chris Cramer, a sound organiser for the BBC, became seriously ill and his colleague, Sim Harris, was taken to the field telephone to negotiate for a doctor. The police negotiator refused the request, instead telling Harris to persuade Oan to release Cramer. The ensuing negotiations between Harris, Oan, and the police took up most of the morning, and Cramer was eventually released at 11:15.

He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by police officers sent to gather information from him. [35] As the deadline of noon approached, set the previous day for the release of the Arab prisoners, the police became convinced that the gunmen did not have the capability to carry out their threat of blowing up the embassy, and persuaded Oan to agree to a new deadline of 14:00. The police allowed the deadline to pass, to no immediate response from the gunmen. During the afternoon, Oan altered his demands, requesting that the British media broadcast a statement of the group's grievances and for ambassadors of three Arab countries to negotiate the group's safe passage out of the UK once the statement had been broadcast. At approximately 20:00, Oan became agitated by noises coming from the Ethiopian Embassy next door. The noise came from technicians who were drilling holes in the wall to implant listening devices, but PC Trevor Lock, when asked to identify the sound, attributed it to mice. [36] COBRA decided to create ambient noise to cover the sound created by the technicians and instructed British Gas to commence drilling in an adjacent road, supposedly to repair a gas main.

The drilling was aborted after it agitated the gunmen, and instead British Airports Authority , owner of London Heathrow Airport , was told to instruct approaching aircraft to fly over the embassy at low altitude. [34] Day three: 2 May Edit At 09:30 on 2 May, Oan appeared at the first-floor window of the embassy to demand access to the telex system, which the police had disabled along with the telephone lines, and threatened to kill Abdul Fazi Ezzati, the cultural attaché. The police refused and Oan pushed Ezzati, whom he had been holding at gunpoint at the window, across the room, before demanding to speak to somebody from the BBC who knew Sim Harris. The police, relieved to have a demand to which they could easily agree, produced Tony Crabb, managing director of BBC Television News and Harris's boss. Oan shouted his demands—for safe passage out of the UK, to be negotiated by three ambassadors from Arab countries—to Crabb from the first-floor window, and instructed that they should be broadcast along with a statement of the hostage-takers' aims by the BBC.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office informally approached the embassies of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria and Qatar to ask if their ambassadors would be willing to talk to the hostage-takers. The Jordanian ambassador immediately refused and the other five said they would consult their governments. [37] The BBC broadcast the statement that evening, but in a form unsatisfactory to Oan, who considered it to be truncated and incorrect. [38] [39] Meanwhile, the police located the embassy caretaker and took him to their forward headquarters to brief the SAS and senior police officers. He informed them that the embassy's front door was reinforced by a steel security door, and that the windows on the ground floor and first floor were fitted with armoured glass—the result of recommendations made after the SAS had been asked to review security arrangements for the embassy several years earlier. Plans for entering the embassy by battering the front door and ground-floor windows were quickly scrapped and work began on other ideas. [40] Day four: 3 May Edit Oan, angered by the BBC's incorrect reporting of his demands the previous evening, contacted the police negotiators shortly after 06:00 and accused the authorities of deceiving him.

He demanded to speak with an Arab ambassador, but the negotiator on duty claimed that talks were still being arranged by the Foreign Office. Recognising the delaying tactic, Oan told the negotiator that the British hostages would be the last to be released because of the British authorities' deceit. He added that a hostage would be killed unless Tony Crabb was brought back to the embassy. Crabb did not arrive at the embassy until 15:30, nearly ten hours after Oan demanded his presence, to the frustration of both Oan and Sim Harris. Oan then relayed another statement to Crabb via Mustapha Karkouti , a journalist also being held hostage in the embassy. The police guaranteed that the statement would be broadcast on the BBC's next news bulletin, in exchange for the release of two hostages. The hostages decided amongst themselves that the two to be released would be Hiyech Kanji and Ali-Guil Ghanzafar; the latter was apparently released for no other reason than his loud snoring, which kept the other hostages awake at night. [41] [42] Later in the evening, at approximately 23:00, an SAS team reconnoitred the roof of the embassy.

They discovered a skylight , and succeeded in unlocking it for potential use as an access point, should they later be required to storm the building. They also attached ropes to the chimneys to allow soldiers to abseil down the building and gain access through the windows if necessary. [43] Day five: 4 May Edit During the day, the Foreign Office held further talks with diplomats from Arab countries in the hope of persuading them to go to the embassy and talk to the hostage-takers. However the talks, hosted by Douglas Hurd , ended in stalemate. The diplomats insisted they must be able to offer safe passage out of the UK for the gunmen, believing this to be the only way to guarantee a peaceful outcome, but the British government was adamant that safe passage would not be considered under any circumstances. [44] Karkhouti, through whom Oan had issued his revised demands the previous day, became increasingly ill throughout the day and by the evening was feverish, which led to suggestions that the police had spiked the food that had been sent into the embassy.

John Dellow, the commander of the police operation, had apparently considered the idea and even consulted a doctor about its viability, but eventually dismissed it as "impracticable". [45] The SAS officers involved in the operation—including Brigadier Peter de la Billière , Director Special Forces ; Lieutenant Colonel Mike Rose , Commander of 22 SAS; and Major Hector Gullan, commander of the team that would undertake any raid—spent the day refining their plans for an assault. [45] Day six: 5 May Edit Oan woke Lock at dawn, convinced that an intruder was in the embassy. Lock was sent to investigate, but no intruder was found. Later in the morning, Oan called Lock to examine a bulge in the wall separating the Iranian embassy from the Ethiopian embassy next door. The bulge had, in fact, been caused by the removal of bricks to allow an assault team to break through the wall and to implant listening devices, resulting in a weakening of the wall.

Although Lock assured him that he did not believe the police were about to storm the building, Oan remained convinced that they were "up to something" and moved the male hostages from the room in which they had spent the last four days to another down the hall. [46] Tensions rose throughout the morning and, at 13:00, Oan told the police that he would kill a hostage unless he was able to speak to an Arab ambassador within 45 minutes. At 13:40, Lock informed the negotiator that the gunmen had taken Abbas Lavasani—the embassy's chief press officer—downstairs and were preparing to execute him. Lavasani, a devout believer in the Iranian Revolution , had repeatedly provoked his captors during the siege. According to Lock, Lavasani stated that "if they were going to kill a hostage, [Lavasani] wanted it to be him." [47] At exactly 13:45, 45 minutes after Oan's demand to speak to an ambassador, three shots were heard from inside the embassy.

[48] Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw, who had been chairing COBRA during the siege, was rushed back to Whitehall from a function he had been attending in Slough , roughly 20 miles away, arriving 19 minutes after the shots had been reported. He was briefed on the SAS plan by de la Billière, who told him to expect that up to 40 per cent of the hostages would be killed in an assault. After deliberations, Whitelaw instructed the SAS to prepare to assault the building at short notice, an order that was received by Mike Rose at 15:50. By 17:00, the SAS were in a position to assault the embassy at ten minutes' notice. The police negotiators recruited the imam from a local mosque at 18:20, fearing that a "crisis point" had been reached, and asked him to talk to the gunmen. Three further shots were fired during the course of the imam's conversation with Oan. Oan announced that a hostage had been killed, and the rest would die in 30 minutes unless his demands were met.

A few minutes later, Lavasani's body was dumped out of the front door. Upon a preliminary examination, conducted at the scene, a forensic pathologist estimated that Lavasani had been dead for at least an hour—meaning he could not have been killed by the three most recent shots, and leading the police to believe that two hostages had been killed. In fact, only Lavasani had been shot. [49] After Lavasani's body had been recovered, Sir David McNee , Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, contacted the Home Secretary to request approval to hand control of the operation over to the British Army, under the provisions of Military Aid to the Civil Power . [50] Whitelaw relayed the request to Thatcher, and the prime minister agreed immediately. Thus John Dellow, the ranking police officer at the embassy, signed over control of the operation to Lieutenant Colonel Mike Rose at 19:07, authorising Rose to order an assault at his discretion. Meanwhile, the police negotiators began stalling Oan. They offered concessions in order to distract him and prevent him killing further hostages, buying time for the SAS to make its final preparations for the now-inevitable assault.

[51] SAS assault Edit The two SAS teams on-scene—Red Team and Blue Team—were ordered to begin their simultaneous assaults, under the codename Operation Nimrod, at 19:23. One group of four men from Red Team abseiled from the roof down the rear of the building, while another four-man team lowered a stun grenade through the skylight. The detonation of the stun grenade was supposed to coincide with the abseiling teams detonating explosives to gain entry to the building through the second-floor windows. However, their descent had not gone according to plan and the staff sergeant leading the abseilers became entangled in his rope. While trying to assist him, one of the other soldiers had accidentally smashed a window with his foot. The noise of the breaking window alerted Oan, who was on the first floor communicating with the police negotiators, and he went to investigate. The soldiers were unable to use explosives for fear of injuring their stranded staff sergeant, but managed to smash their way into the embassy. [52] [53] File:Sim Harris.jpg After the first three soldiers entered, a fire started and travelled up the curtains and out of the second-floor window, severely burning the staff sergeant.

A second wave of abseilers cut him free, and he fell to the balcony below before entering the embassy behind the rest of his team. Slightly behind Red Team, Blue Team detonated explosives on a first-floor window—forcing Sim Harris, who had just run into the room, to take cover. [54] Much of the operation at the front of the embassy took place in full view of the assembled journalists and was broadcast on live television, thus Harris's escape across the parapet of a first-floor balcony was famously captured on video. [55] As the soldiers emerged onto the first-floor landing, Lock tackled Oan to prevent him attacking the SAS men. Oan, still armed, was subsequently shot dead by one of the soldiers. Meanwhile, further teams entered the embassy through the back door and cleared the ground floor and cellar. [56] The SAS then began evacuating hostages, manhandling them down the stairs towards the back door of the embassy. Two of the terrorists were hiding amongst the hostages—one of them produced a hand grenade when he was identified.

An SAS soldier, who was unable to shoot for fear of hitting a hostage or another soldier, pushed the grenade-wielding terrorist to the bottom of the stairs, where two other soldiers shot him dead. [53] [57] The raid lasted 17 minutes and involved 30–35 soldiers. The terrorists killed one hostage and seriously wounded two others during the raid while the SAS killed all but one of the terrorists. The rescued hostages and the remaining terrorist, who was still concealed amongst them, were taken into the embassy's back garden and restrained on the ground while they were identified. The last terrorist was identified by Sim Harris and led away by the SAS. [57] [58] Aftermath Edit The ribbon of the George Medal , which was awarded to PC Trevor Lock After the end of the siege, PC Trevor Lock was widely considered a hero. He was awarded the George Medal , the United Kingdom's second-highest civil honour, for his conduct during the siege and for tackling Oan during the SAS raid—the only time during the siege that he drew his concealed side arm. In addition, he was honoured with the Freedom of the City of London and in a motion in the House of Commons .

[59] [60] [61] Police historian Michael J. Waldren, referring to the television series Dixon of Dock Green , suggested that Lock's restraint in the use of his revolver was "a defining example of the power of the Dixon image", [62] and Maurice Punch noted the contrast between Lock's actions and the highly aggressive tactics of the SAS. [63] Sergeant Tommy Palmer was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his part in the assault, in which he shot dead a terrorist who was apparently about to throw a grenade amongst the hostages. [64] After the operation concluded, the staff sergeant who was caught in his abseil rope was treated at St Stephen's Hospital in Fulham. He suffered serious burns to his legs, but went on to make a full recovery. [65] The Iranian government welcomed the end of the siege, and declared that the two hostages killed were martyrs for the Iranian Revolution. [4] They also thanked the British government for "the persevering action of your police force during the unjust hostage-taking event at the Embassy".

[1] After the assault concluded, the police conducted an investigation into the siege and the deaths of the two hostages and five terrorists, including the actions of the SAS. The soldiers' weapons were taken away for examination and, the following day, the soldiers themselves were interviewed at length by the police at the regiment's base in Hereford. [64] There was controversy over the deaths of two terrorists in the telex room, where the male hostages were held. Hostages later said in interviews that they had persuaded their captors to surrender and television footage appeared to show them throwing weapons out of the window and holding a white flag . The two SAS soldiers who killed the men both stated at the inquest into the terrorists' deaths that they believed the men had been reaching for weapons before they were shot. The inquest jury reached the verdict that the soldiers' actions were justifiable homicide (later known as "lawful killing"). [66] Fowzi Nejad was the only gunman to survive the SAS assault. After being identified, he was dragged away by an SAS trooper, who allegedly intended to take him back into the building and shoot him.

The soldier reportedly changed his mind when it was pointed out to him that the raid was being broadcast on live television. [66] It later emerged that the footage from the back of the embassy was coming from a wireless camera placed in the window of a flat overlooking the embassy. The camera had been installed by ITN technicians, who had posed as guests of a local resident in order to get past the police cordon, which had been in place since the beginning of the siege. [67] Nejad was arrested, and was eventually tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the siege. [66] [68] He became eligible for parole in 2005. As a foreign national, he would normally have been immediately deported to his home country. However, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights , incorporated into British law by the Human Rights Act 1998 , has been held by the European Court of Human Rights to prohibit deportation in cases where the person concerned would be likely to be tortured or executed in his home country.

[69] [70] [71] Nejad was eventually paroled in 2008 and granted leave to remain in the UK, but was not given political asylum . [71] [72] The Home Office released a statement, saying "We do not give refugee status to convicted terrorists. Our aim is to deport people as quickly as possible but the law requires us to first obtain assurances that the person being returned will not face certain death". [71] After 27 years in prison, Nejad was deemed no longer to be a threat to society, but Trevor Lock wrote to the Home Office to oppose his release. [71] Long-term impact Edit The SAS raid, codenamed "Operation Nimrod", was broadcast live at peak time on a bank holiday Monday evening and was viewed by millions of people, mostly in the UK, making it a defining moment in British history. [66] [73] Both the BBC and ITV interrupted their scheduled programming to show the end of the siege, [61] which proved to be a major career break for several journalists.

Kate Adie , the BBC's duty reporter at the embassy when the SAS assault began, went on to report from war zones across the world and eventually to become chief news correspondent for BBC News, [74] while David Goldsmith and his team, responsible for the hidden camera at the back of the embassy, were awarded a BAFTA for their coverage. [75] The success of the operation, combined with the high profile it was given by the media, invoked a sense of national pride compared to Victory in Europe Day —the end of the Second World War in Europe. [76] The operation was declared "an almost unqualified success". [77] Thatcher recalled that she was congratulated wherever she went over the following days, and received messages of support and congratulation from other world leaders. [76] However, the incident strained already-tense relations between the UK and Iran following the Iranian Revolution. The Iranian government declared that the siege of the embassy was planned by the British and American governments, and that the hostages who had been killed were martyrs for the Revolution.

[4] [76] Operation Nimrod brought the SAS, a regiment that was largely unknown at the time owing to the covert nature of its operations, into the public eye. [4] [78] The regiment was not pleased with its new high profile, having enjoyed its previous obscurity. However, the operation vindicated the SAS, which had been threatened with disbandment and whose use of resources had previously been considered a waste. [4] The regiment was quickly overwhelmed by new applicants. Membership of 22 SAS, the only regular regiment of the Regiment, is open exclusively to soldiers already serving in the British Army, but the regiment also has two regiments from the volunteer Territorial Army (TA)—21 SAS and 23 SAS. Both the TA regiments received hundreds more applications than in previous years, prompting de la Billière to remark that the applicants seemed "convinced that a balaclava helmet and a Heckler & Koch sub-machine gun would be handed to them over the counter, so that they could go off and conduct embassy-style sieges of their own". [64] All three units were forced to introduce additional fitness tests at the start of the application process.

[64] The SAS also experienced an increased demand for their expertise in training the forces of friendly countries and those whose collapse was considered not to be in Britain's interest. [73] [76] The British government's response to the crisis, and the successful use of force to end it, strengthened the Conservative government of the day and boosted Thatcher's personal credibility. [76] McNee believed that the conclusion of siege exemplified the British government's policy of refusing to adhere to terrorist demands, "nowhere was the effectiveness of this response to terrorism more effectively demonstrated". [79] The embassy building was severely damaged by fire. It was more than a decade before the British and Iranian governments came to an agreement whereby the United Kingdom would repair the damage to the embassy in London and Iran would pay for repairs to the British embassy in Tehran, which had been damaged during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Iranian diplomats began working from 16 Princes Gate again in December 1993. [1] The DRFLA was undermined by its links with the Iraqi government after it emerged that Iraq had sponsored the training and equipping of the hostage-takers.

The Iran–Iraq War started five months after the end of the siege and continued for eight years. The campaign for autonomy of Khūzestān was largely forgotten in the wake of the hostilities, as was the DRFLA. [1] See also The People History Blog: 1980 News and Interesting History Tidbits 1980 News and Interesting History Tidbits Gdansk Shipyard Poland Seized By Workers Workers led by Lech Walesa in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland seize control and demand pay raises and the right to form a union free from communist control. In September the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) Union was formed, the workers' first independent trade union, led by shipyard electrician Lech Walesa. This was the start of the movement that allowed Poland to end Communist Rule in the country. Clifford Robert Olson Serial Killer Clifford Robert Olson begins his reign of terror in Canada when he abducts and kills 12-year-old Christine Weller. Between November 1980 and August 1981 he murders 11 children.

He is caught and pleads guilty to the murders and is given 11 concurrent life sentences in 1982. Mount St. Helens Erupts After a week of small earthquakes below the area, an eruption of Mount St. Helens blasts a mushroom cloud over most of the state of Washington. Just 2 months later St. Helens catastrophically erupted on May 18, 1980 during which 57 people were killed or never found and huge tracts of forest and homes were destroyed. Moscow Olympics 1980 The Summer Olympic Games of the XXII Olympiad are held in Moscow, Soviet Union. The first Olympic Games held in Eastern Europe. Boycott led by the United States includes 64 countries in protest of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The British Olympic Association has defied the British Government and will be sending a team to the Moscow Olympics later in the year. The British and US government and other Governments around the world have called for a boycott of the Moscow Olympics. Although many governments pressurised their Olympic Athlete's only 16 countries did not compete including The United States, Japan, West Germany, China, Canada and 9 others.

To place it in context 81 other countries athletes many in defiance of their governments wishes did compete but many as a sign of support against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan marched under the Olympic Flag, instead of their national flags. Alexander Kielland Platform Capsizes The Alexander Kielland platform 230 miles off shore from Dundee in Scotland is hit by a giant wave which causes one of the legs supporting it to give way, the platform then capsized throwing those trying to get off into the cold North Sea. RAF and Norwegian helicopters along with any shipping close to the accident have been asked to help with the rescue.

The current stormy weather conditions are making rescue difficult and the bitter cold sea combined with the stormy conditions left 123 dead CNN 24hr News Is launched The first 24-hour news television station – CNN is launched in Atlanta, Georgia Draft Registration re-introduced All 19 and 20 year old men are required to register for the Draft, this followed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act signed by President Jimmy Carter re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Robert Mugabe Elected Robert Mugabe wins election to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. Bologna Terrorist Bomb A bomb planted by right wing terrorists in a waiting room explodes in Bologna railway station, killing over 70 and injuring more than 200. Rioting Liberty City, Miami Following the death of Arthur McDuffie from multiple skull fractures caused by a blunt object during his arrest by 4 Miami police officers on December 17th, 1979 a trial of the officers led to a not guilty verdict on 17th May.

After the verdict approximately 5,000 people attended a protest at the downtown Metro Justice Building, but the protest turned into a riot and three people are killed and at least 23 injured during the first night of violence. During the next few days a total of 18 people are killed with 100's of others injured and law and order is resumed when a curfew is implemented from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. together with 3,000 National Guardsmen deployed on the streets. Iran Embassy London Siege Six terrorists take control of the Iranian Embassy including 26 hostages in Prince's Gate, South Kensington in central London demanding the release of 91 political prisoners held in Iran as well as an aircraft to take them and the hostages out of the UK. Following the murder of an Iranian diplomat and dumping of his body outside the embassy SAS commandos storm the embassy killing five Iranian gunmen and Nineteen hostages are set free with one hostage death and two injuries in the cross-fire Nelson Mandela Letter From Prison Nelson Mandela the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC) makes public a statement from a letter written by Nelson Mandela and smuggled out of prison "UNITE! MOBILISE!

FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!" Windfall Act on Oil Industries High Profits Following the high increases in the cost of Gas at the pump congress passes legislation for the "Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act" which collects roughly $227 billion dollars over the next 10 years . Salisbury Changed Its Name To Harare Salisbury, Rhodesia Changed Its Name To Harare, Zimbabwe 1980 The Killer Clown A jury finds John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( also known as The Killer Clown ) guilty of the murders of 33 boys and young men, he had admitted the murders but he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He had started his murders in 1972 and continued till 1978 when he was caught, 27 were found in a crawl space under the floor of his house and others were found in nearby rivers. The sentence was 21 consecutive life sentences and 12 death sentences.

On May 10, 1994, Gacy was executed at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois, by lethal injection Wrangell-St.Elias National Park Alaska The Wrangell-St.Elias National Park in Southern Alaska was established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. It is the largest national park in the United States covering an area of over 13 million acres (53,000 km²). Some of the animals that live in the park and are protected include Bears, Wolves and Moose. Unemployment increasing to 7% Current unemployment figures reach 7% which is the highest since the recession in 1976 / 1977, and in some rural areas of the country the rate has increased to as much as 12% which can be described as a labor market recession . United States Hockey Team Win The United States hockey team, composed in great part of college players, defeat the defending champions and favorites to win the gold medal Soviet Union squad by 4-3.

Canary Islands Plane Crash A Dan-Air Boeing 727 crashes into the side of a mountain due to foggy conditions and confusion between air traffic controllers and the ships captain. The aircraft was carrying British tourists to the Canary Islands and all 146 people were killed on impact. New Rules Re Sexual Harassment The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued regulations prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace of workers by supervisors. US Embassy Hostage Crisis A mission to rescue the 52 hostages from the US embassy in Iran ( Operation Eagle Claw ) was aborted due to equipment failure, The Iranian foreign minister warned that any attempt by the US would be considered an act of War. Eight US Servicemen lost their lives in the aborted attempt. The hostages were held for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of students took over the American embassy in support of Iran's revolution. The crisis ended after The Algiers Accords are agreed on January 19, 1981 brokered by the Algerian government between the USA and Iran to resolve the situation.

The Algiers Accords consisted of a number of stipulations which both parties agreed to Including: The US would not intervene in Iranian internal affairs The US would remove a freeze on Iranian assets and trade sanctions on Iran Both countries would end litigation between their respective governments and citizens referring them to international arbitration, namely the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. The US would ensure that US court decisions regarding the transfer of any property of the former Shah would be independent from "sovereign immunity principles" and would be enforced Iranian debts to US institutions would be paid UK Breakfast TV The ( IBA ) Independent Broadcasting Authority announces that the breakfast television contract will go to TV-am and will launch in 1983. The BBC launched "Breakfast Time". in January 1983 TV-am Launched it's service in February 1983 In the ratings war between the BBC breakfast time and TV-AM, the BBC won but after a major change of presenters and the introduction of Greg Dyke's furry puppet Roland Rat TV-AM built it's audience numbers until they lost the franchise in 1990.

Leonardo da Vinci Auction American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at a London auction for a notebook containing writings written around 1508 by the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci. When it went up for auction again in 1994 Bill Gates bought the Manuscript $30.8 million. John Lennon Shot Former Beatle John Lennon was shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician's New York apartment. Yugo Car Manufacturer File For Bankruptcy The maker of the Yugo automobile goes out of business and files for bankruptcy. The Yugo was a car that was very popular for a while in the 1980s because of its very low price. However, apparently quite a bit of customers “got what they paid for”. The Yugo was a failure because it was so poorly-designed. It was even said that the body was pierce-able with a wooden pencil. Fire At MGM Grand Hotel Vegas A fire broke out in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (Now Bally's Las Vegas) in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Smoke and fire spread through the hotel, killing 84 people and injuring 785, including tourists and employees.

Who Shot JR Ewing on Dallas ? I can remember one of the greatest cliffhangers in TV Drama history even though I could not be described as a dedicated TV follower. The date I was researching was May 29th 1980 and the world had to stay on tenterhooks till the series returned in the Autumn of that year. I remembered when I was researching this day in history and reading all the possible suspects people thought it might be how big a news item it was and how much speculation there was . The strangest thing is I can remember the speculation of who shot JR but do not have a clue who it was !!!!

Just goes to show you how our memory will keep some things and not remember others 1979 Previous Year ---- ( Current Year Is 1980 ) ---- Following Year 1981 Reactions: CAPTURE OF HIJACKERS - ACTION AGAINST TERRORISTS - 4 INCIDENTS IN DECADE - NYTimes.com CAPTURE OF HIJACKERS; ACTION AGAINST TERRORISTS: 4 INCIDENTS IN DECADE By PETER KERR Published: October 11, 1985 The interception by United States aircraft yesterday of an Egyptian plane carrying four hijackers was not the first time in which a Western government has taken military action against terrorists. On at least four occasions in the last decade, such operations freed hostages held at gunpoint and were considered successful by the governments that organized them - the United States, Israel, Britain and West Germany. In some of these cases, however, several lives were lost and the raids led to controversy as well as jubilation. The Entebbe Raid Perhaps the most often recalled action was a daring nighttime raid by Israeli troops on Entebbe Airport in Uganda in July 1976.

It freed 103 hostages, mainly Israeli, and an Air France crew who had been held for a week by pro-Palestinian hijackers. The airliner had been taken over by armed gunmen, including two West German nationals, as it flew from Athens to Paris. The plane landed in Uganda, and the hijackers released 143 of 250 hostages but threatened to kill the rest. The hijackers demanded the release of 53 prisoners jailed in five countries, including Israel. The Israelis responded by sending specially trained troops in three C-130 Hercules transport planes under cover of darkness. The troops poured out of the aircraft and rushed an old passenger terminal, cutting down the terrorists with gunfire and hand grenades. Three hostages and the commander of the Israeli force was killed, as well as 7 hijackers and about 20 Ugandan soldiers who were believed to be lending the hijackers support. Despite the casualties, the Israeli public rejoiced at the news of the rescue. Embassy Stormed in London In April 1980, dissident Iranians demanding the release of 91 political prisoners in Iran, seized the Iranian Embassy in London, holding more than 20 people hostage.

After more than five days, members of the elite and highly secretive Special Air Service's regiment of the British Army stormed the building. Five of the Iranian gunmen were killed in the raid, and although the authorities said none of the hostages were killed during the raid itself, two were shot by the terrorists a short time earlier. In October 1977, the West German Government undertook a similar assault to save the hijacking victims aboard a Lufthansa airliner that had been held in Mogadishu, Somalia, for more than five days. A German commando unit approached the rear of the plane, exploding blinding grenades and rushed in to the rear exits, firing at the four hijackers. The 82 freed passengers were traveling from Palma to Frankfurt; most were West German tourists returning from the Riviera. Three of the four hijackers were killed, including the leader who had forced the pilot of the plane to kneel down and then shot him fatally. The Mayaguez Incident A more controversial military assault was ordered by President Ford in May 1975, when the United States merchant ship Mayaguez was captured by Cambodian naval vessels several weeks after the Communist Khmer Rouge insurgents took control of Phnom Penh.

As part of the operations the United States marines stormed Tang Island where the ship was held and attacked Cambodian positions with United States carrier-borne aircraft. The 39-member crew was returned safely after three days in captivity, but 41 American servicemen and an unknown number of Cambodians died in the assault. Some Americans who opposed further military operations in Southeast Asia criticized the attack, saying lives could have been saved by further negotiations. The potential dangers in mounting a complex military operation of this kind were perhaps best illustrated in April 1980, when President Carter ordered a rescue operation intended to rescue the American hostages in Teheran, Iran. Eight helicopters took off from the American aircraft carrier Nimitz, but only six made it to a desert refueling stop, where a helicopter collided with an American transport plane. The operation was called off, with eight United States troops killed and four injured. The Iranian hostage crisis continued for nine more months.

Question: The London embassy of which country was seized in 1980 by gunmen demanding the release of political prisoners?
Answer: Iran