On November 4, 1979, a battalion-sized group of militants who became known as the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line descended upon the American embassy in Tehran, Iran.  They eventually suppressed the guards and seized control of the compound.

For 444 days, fifty-two diplomats, soldiers, and their family members were held captive by this Iranian group which demanded that the US government extradite their deposed Shah back to Iran for trial.  The Shah had been overthrown earlier that year during Iran’s Islamic revolution, and he was seeking medical treatment in the US at the time.