Common Sense with Paul Jacob

On Jan. 16, 1979, the Shah of Iran fled his country in the face of an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule. Just fourteen days later, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.

The Shah had ruled Iran since 1941. In 1953, when the Shah was pushed out of power (for two days) after attempting to dismiss Mohammad Mosaddeq, the nation’s popular premier, American and British intelligence agents orchestrated a coup d’etat against Mosaddeq and retunred the Shah as the sole leader of Iran.

In October 1979, the Shah was permitted to enter the United States for medical treatment and Islamic militants responded by storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran and taking 52 Americans hostage. The militants, with support from Khomeini, demanded the U.S. return the Shah to face charges. The U.S. refused to negotiate and hostages were held for 444 days.

On Jan. 15, 1777, a convention of future Vermonters assembled and declared independence from the crown of Great Britain and the colony of New York. Later in 1777, Vermont’s constitution became the first to prohibit slavery and to give all adult males, not just property owners, the right to vote. Yet, Vermont wouldn’t be admitted as the 14th state until 1791.

On Jan. 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Jan. 14, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Second Treaty of Paris, thus bringing the Revolutionary War to an official end. In the treaty, known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America.

On Jan. 13, 1733, James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrived in what is today Charleston, South Carolina. Oglethorpe was a British general, member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founded of the colony of Georgia. As a social reformer, Oglethorpe hoped to resettle Britain’s poor, especially those in debtors’ prisons, in the New World.