30 Years Later: Iran Hostage Crisis

Nov. 4, 2009, marks the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, when militant Iranian students took 66 Americans hostage and began a 444-day standoff with the West. Fifty-two Americans were kept in captivity for nearly 15 months by forces loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who established an Islamic theocracy in 1979, months before the storming of the embassy.