Operation Eagle Claw fails in the desert
1980 · Event
America's secret mission to rescue the hostages dies at a desert refuelling strip: helicopters fail in a dust storm, the mission is aborted, and a collision on the ground kills eight servicemen. The wreckage is paraded in Tehran; Carter's presidency never recovers.
On these timelines: The Iranian Revolution, Persia and Iran, USA, Master, Cold War
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 1980
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Gulf War (1990)
- Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
- Night Fever (Bee Gees) (1978)
- Invention of the World Wide Web (1989)
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (Pink Floyd) (1979)
- Pop music: the 1990s (1990)
- Pop music: the 1980s (1980)