2009 in Iran - Events

Events

• February 2 – Iran's first domestically constructed satellite, Omid, is launched.
• March 7 – Morocco terminates diplomatic relations with Iran.
• March 18 – Somali pirates hijack an Iranian fishing vessel in the Gulf of Aden.
• April 18 – Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi is charged with espionage and imprisoned in Iran until 2017.
• May 4 – A bus collides with a building in Īlām Province, Iran, killing 28 people and injuring nine others.
• May 20 – Iran launches a Sejjil-2 medium-range surface-to-surface missile.
• May 30 – A bomb is discovered and defused aboard a Kish Air flight between Ahvaz and Tehran, Iran.
• June 12 – Iran goes to the polls for its presidential election.
• June 13 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reelected as the President of Iran, although opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi demands a recount.
• June 20 – A suicide bomb reportedly explodes at the shrine of former Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• June 22 – The Iranian Revolutionary Guard warns that it will 'crush' any further protests.
• June 23 – The Guardian Council rules out a re-run of the presidential election saying that there was no sign of serious electoral fraud in the June 12 vote.
• June 24 – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declares the recent election result will stand.
• July 15 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, flying from Tehran to Yerevan, Armenia with 153 passengers and 15 crew members on board, crashes in Iran shortly after takeoff.
• July 24 – Aria Air Flight 1525 crashes in Mashhad, Iran, killing at least 17 people and injuring 19 of the 153 people on board.
• July 28 – Iran releases 140 people detained in its post-election unrest as the supreme leader orders a prison where jailed protesters were killed be closed.
• July 30 – Iranian police clash with mourners at a Tehranian cemetery for a memorial to those killed in post-election violence, using teargas to disperse crowds from the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan and forcing Opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi to make his exit.
• August 3 – Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei formally approves the second-term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• August 5 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in as President of Iran for a second term.
• October 18 – 2009 Pishin bombing: a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a meeting in the southeastern Iranian town of Pishin in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The attack killed at least 43 people including several senior commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and injured a further 150. The Sunni rebel organization Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack.
• November 4 – Around 700 people are injured in two earthquakes in southern Iran.
• November 9 – Three American hikers detained on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran are to be charged for espionage by Iranian authorities.
• November 29 – The Iranian government approves plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants.
• December 28 – Iran declares martial law in Najafabad following a week of protest and 2 days of violence.