The Rex Cinema fire
1978 · Event
Arsonists lock the doors of a packed cinema in Abadan and some 470 people burn to death. The crowd blames the Shah's secret police — it later emerges Islamist militants set the fire — and the funerals become the revolution's biggest demonstrations yet. Truth matters less than fury now.
On these timelines: The Iranian Revolution, Persia and Iran, Master
More from The Iranian Revolution
- Iranian Revolution (1978)
- Khomeini returns to Iran (1979)
- Shah flees Iran (1979)
- The Iranian monarchy falls (1979)
- Iran hostage crisis (1979)
- Students storm the US embassy in Tehran (1979)
- Islamic Republic referendum (1979)
- Black Friday massacre in Tehran (1978)
Around 1978
- The Troubles (1968)
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Prague Spring (1968)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
- Night Fever (Bee Gees) (1978)
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (Pink Floyd) (1979)
- Pop music: the 1970s (1970)