1979: Iranian hostage crisis begins
Hundreds of militant Iranian students rushed U.S. diplomats in Tehran today. “Urged on by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian protesters seized two U.S. consulates, an American cultural center and the British Embassy in Tehran today, and continued to hold the U.S. Embassy and more than 50 hostages,” explained the Daily Sitka Sentinel on November 5, 1979.
“Khomeini called on the student militants to act against ‘the great Satan, America,’ in order to force it to extradite the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, hospitalized in New York for cancer treatment, back to Iran for trial,” continued the article. “The Moslem clergyman and revolutionary leader also demanded that Britain hand over former Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar, now living in exile in Britain.”
NOTE: Iran would continue to hold over 50 diplomat hostages for 444 days, ending in the signing of the Algiers Accords on January 19, 1981.
Links to the Past
Khomeini calls U.S. ‘Satan,’ supports student takeovers
The Chillicothe Constitution Tribune, November 5, 1979
Iran Protesters Seize U.S. Officies, Make Demands
Daily Sitka Sentinel, November 5, 1979
U.S., British embassies seized by Iran students
The Chronicle Telegram, November 5, 1979
Iranians Threaten To Kill Hostages; Bazargan Resigns
Indiana Evening Gazette, November 6, 1979
U.S. won’t swap sick shah for hostages
The Chronicle Telegram, November 6, 1979
Indiana Evening Gazette
November 6, 1979
Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday I discussed the beginning of the women's rights movement in America. While the main figures in early America did make a difference, it was Susan B. Anthony who catapulted women's issues to the front of politics. Here's some highlights from her life:
A Historical Perspective
Susan B. Anthony first became interested in rights - both those of women and of slaves - at a very early age. But it was in 1850, after reading an account of the first National Women's Rights Convention, that she dedicated her life fully to women's rights. She gave her first public speech at the third National Women's Rights Convention: "Susan Anthony offered resolutions commending journals edited by women," informed the Alton Weekly Courier on October 1, 1852. Although that is all they wrote about Anthony, the description of the convention is quite detailed. Here's another section: "Resolutions were passed favoring female physicians and lawyers, and also an alteration in the marriage laws. Horace mann's addresses were scattered generally. Lucy Stone appealed touchingly and eloquently to the audience not to live an aimless life -- to learn self-help -- to mind not ridicule, or sneers, or flatterers; she did not emulate the womanhood of blushing cheeks, languishing eyes, and garments that draggle in the dirt."
Anthony continued to make waves in America promoting women's rights. In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. They toured the states, forming local chapters. "The constitution reported by the committee states that the association shall be called the Woman's State Suffrage Association; its objective shall be to secure suffrage to women; terms of admission tot he Association shall be an annual contribution of not less than fifty cents; shall have a president, a vice president for each Congressional district, a recording and corresponding secretary, treasurer, executive committee, and an advisory committee to be members of the National Association," explained The New York Herald on July 15, 1869. "Miss Anthony explained the objects of the association thus formed to be the education of all sections of the State up to the position of demanding suffrage for women."
A few years later, Anthony and fourteen others were arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 Presidential Election. Some papers gave her support: "Miss Susan B. Anthony and her voting sisters of Rochester stand not alone in their glory. Other American females also voted on election day for President, among them Mrs. J. J. Barker and Mrs. J. G. Nolen, of Toledo, O., whose proffered ballots were received and counted in the Third Ward of that city. The first voted for General Grant, and the second, the younger and better looking, for Mr. Greeley," reported The World on November 18, 1872. Anthony was fined $100 for the act, a fine which she refused to pay.
The New York Herald
July 15, 1869
The Capital
November 5, 1995
Star-News
November 17, 1970
1922: Tut’s tomb found
Egyptian King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered today. “The earth holds in her recesses the rich memories of our race, and sometimes, as though the effort of the reflective and inquiring mind of modern man had suddenly flashed forth in a revealing intuition, a discovery comes that lights up the obscurity of the distant past,” reported The Frederick Post on December 22, 1922. “One such discovery we are privileged to record, says the London Times of a recent date. Our Cairo correspondent tells us how, after sixteen years of patient toil and research, Lord Carnarvon and that distinguished excavator, Howard Carter, have been rewarded by a marvelous find in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes.”
Moberly Monitor-Index
December 28, 1922