Timeline of The Iranian Islamic Revolution - 1979

1979

• January 3 (15th of Dey): Shapour Bakhtiar of the National Front (Jabhe-yi Melli) was appointed prime minister to replace General Azhari.
• January 4 (16th of Dey): Shapour Bakhtiar approved as the Prime Minister by Parliament.
• January 12 (22nd of Dey): Revolutionary Council formed by Khomeini to manage revolution. The names of its members are not disclosed.
• January 16 (26th of Dey): Mohammad Reza Shah and his wife leave Iran. Official reports claim that he has left for vacation and medical treatment but in fact he was asked to leave by Shapour Bakhtiar.
• January 23 (3rd of Bahman): The Royal Council dismissed.
• February 1 (12th of Bahman): Khomeini returns to Iran from exile. According to BBC up to five million people line the streets of the Iran's capital, Tehran to witness the homecoming of Khomeini.
• February 4 (15th of Bahman): Khomeini appoints Mehdi Bazargan as prime minister of The Interim Government of Iran.
• February 9 (20th of Bahman): Fighting breaks out between pro-Khomeini technicians (Homafaran) of Iran Air Force and Iranian Imperial Guard.
• February 10 (21st of Bahman): Bakhtiar announces curfew, martial law. Khomeini orders followers to ignore it, and proclaims jihad against army units that do not surrender to revolutionaries. Leftist guerrillas and revolutionaries join rebel troops looting arms from police stations and other government facilities. Army finally declares neutrality to avoid disintegration.
• February 11 (22nd of Bahman): Regime collapses. Revolution victorious. Pahlavi dynasty ends. Royal prime minister, Bakhtiar, goes into hiding, eventually finding exile in Paris.
• February 12 (23rd of Bahman): The committees of Islamic revolution were charged.
• February 18 (29th of Bahman): Foundation of Islamic Republican party by revolutionary clerics comprising Beheshti, Bahonar, Khamenei, Hashemi and Abdolkarim Musavi.
• March 17 (27th of Esfand): Revolt in Sanandaj.
• March 26 (6th of Farvardin): Revolt in Gonbad-e Qabus. Valyollah Qarani, the first chief of Army after revolution, dismissed by the Interim Government of Iran under pressure of leftist. Naser Farbod is appointed as his replacement.
• March 30 and 31 (10 and 11th of Farvardin): national referendum held on whether Iran should become an "Islamic Republic".
• April 1 (12th of Farvardin): 98.2% of votes tallied are in favor of an Islamic republic. Islamic republic established.
• April 17 (31st of Farvardin): Revolt in Naqadeh.
• April 20 (3rd of Ordibehesht): Valyollah Qarani assassinated by the Forqan group.
• May 1 (12th of Ordibehesht): Morteza Motahhari, one of the most notable ideologists of Islamic revolution, assassinated by the Forqan group.
• May 5 (16th of Ordibehesht): Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps established by a decree issued by Ayatollah Khomeini.
• June 5: Early indication of split between Khomeini and non-theocratic intellectuals. In a speech, Khomeini asked: "Who are they that wish to divert our Islamic movement from Islam? ... Intellectuals, do not be Western-style intellectuals, imported intellectuals."
• June 14: Official preliminary draft of the constitution published. Draft constitution contains Council of Guardians to veto un-Islamic legislation, but no Velayat-e faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists). Khomeini declares it `correct.`
• June 15: Khomeini attacks liberal and leftwing groups as `counter-revolutionaries` against Islam. Groups had advocated the election of a Constituent Assembly to write the new constitution. "No `Westernized jurists` are needed to write the constitution, only `noble members of the clergy.`" "Campaign launched to popularised the idea of the velayat-e faqih," hitherto virtually unknown to most Iranians.
• June 17: "Construction Jihad" was established by the order of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
• August 7: Ayandegan, "the daily newspaper with the widest circulation" in Iran, but "which had agitated against Velayat-e faqih" is banned under new press law for "counter-revolutionary policies and acts."
• August 10: Khomeini denounces opponents of the Assembly of Experts and defenders of Ayandegan newspaper calling them "wild animals" and saying, "We will not tolerate them any more ... After each revolution several thousand of these corrupt elements are executed in public and burnt ... We will close all parties except the one, or a few which act in a proper manner ..."
• August 12 (?th of Mordad): More demonstrations. National Democratic Front schedules a mass demonstration to protest the closure of newspapers like Ayandegan. Demonstration is "viciously attacked by Hezbollah thugs." Shortly thereafter a warrant is issued for the arrest of Hedayat Matin Daftari, one of the National Democratic Front's leaders. Hundreds are injured by rocks, clubs, chains and iron bars. The next day Khomeini supporters attack and loot offices of leftist groups in retaliation for demonstrations.
• August 15 (?th of Mordad): Revolt in Paveh.
• August 18 (?th of Mordad): Assembly of Experts for Constitution which were elected by people, gather to write a new constitution.
• September 9: Mahmoud Taleghani, the high rank revolutionary cleric and member of revolutionary council, dies. A friend of the left, Taleghani is considered the second most popular ayatollah after Khomeini.
• October 14: Assembly of Experts approves draft of new constitution. In it, Khomeini holds the position of vali-ye faqih, which includes "command of the armed forces"
• October 22: Cancer-ridden ex-Shah allowed to enter United States for medical treatment. Khomeini speaks out angrily at this "evidence of American plotting." Revolutionary denunciation of the Great Satan (America) intensifies.
• November 1: Prime Minister Bazargan photoed shaking hands with U.S. official Zbigniew Brzezinski at a meeting in Algeria. Radical leftist and theocratic media in Iran alerts the "nation of the return of American influence."
• November 4 (13th of Aban): Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran which resulted in Iran hostage crisis.
• November 6 (13th of Aban): Mehdi Bazargan, prime minister of The Interim Government of Iran, resigns, "unable to muster" support for "eviction of the students." Khomeini immediately accepts his resignation along with all the other members of his cabinet.
• December 18 (27th of Azar): Mohammad Mofatteh assassinated by Forqan group.
• December 2 and 3(11th and 12th of Azar): New Constitution of Iran was approved by referendum by over 98 percent of the vote, but much lower turnout because of boycott. Khomeini becomes vali-ye faqih.