1979 – Iran hostage crisis: A group of Iranian college students overruns the US embassy in Tehran and takes 90 hostages
In what was essentially a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran, 90 people including 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, after a group of Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the US Embassy in Tehran. The crisis led to a breakdown in American and Iranian diplomatic relations.