Anti-Shah protests in Tehran in 1978

The Shah of Iran, left, meets with U.S. officials including President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Young anti-Shah protesters, many in Western attire, march in Iran in December 1978.

The ayatollah, first Supreme Leader of Iran, came to power in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 on an anti-American platform.

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his wife, Queen Farah, came to power in 1941 with the help of the United States and Britain. They aimed to modernize and Westernize Iran.

Mossaddeq, the democratically elected premier, tapped into nationalist sentiment among Iranians to challenge the Shah's elite rule in the early 1950s.

Men in Tehran celebrate the 1953 coup that removed the nationalist Mosaddeq from power with the help of the United States.

Anti-American mural on the wall of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran

Khamenei succeeded Khomeini as Supreme Leader of Iran and is still in power today.

American hostage Barry Rosen is placed on display by Iranian militants in 1979.

Ben Affleck's 2012 film dramatized an aspect of the Iranian hostage crisis from an American perspective. Image: Warner Bros.

The Iranian frigate IS Sahand is attacked by aircraft of U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing 11 after the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine, April 1988.

Anti-American graffiti in Tehran

This circa-1970s magazine advertisement by nuclear-power developers in the United States plays up the peaceful relationship between the U.S. government and the shah of Iran.

A Soviet armored vehicle drives through the streets of Tabriz during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of 1941.

Iranian troops celebrate atop a destroyed Iraqi vehicle during the Iran-Iraq War.

Poster depicting the members of the first Majlis, or parliament, of Iran
Soldiers of the first Constitutional Revolution, circa 1906

An Iranian woman ties a headband onto a soldier as he leaves to fight in the Iran-Iraq War.

Six F-4s of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force in an airstrike on Kirkuk during the Iran-Iraq War

An Iranian youth takes up arms against Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.