Ways A Rescue Mission Can Go Wrong
On April 24, 1980, after 172 days of captivity, a U.S. Armed Forces operation attempted to rescue the hostages. Colonel James Q. Roberts recalls the details of the failed Iran Hostage rescue mission.
Operation Ajax
The secret plan by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to overthrow the then-democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Trailer | Taken Hostage
Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.
Jimmy Carter
President Jimmy Carter confronted one of the most significant challenges of his presidency during the Iran hostage crisis.
The Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlav, the last Shah of Iran consolidated power after a CIA-backed coup in 1953 overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Barry Rosen
Barry Rosen was the press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis. He first visited Iran in 1967 on a two-year Peace Corps mission and fell in love with the country and pursued graduate studies in Iranian language and culture.
Hilary Brown
Hilary Brown was the first female foreign correspondent at ABC News. Her coverage included first-hand reports on the fall of Saigon, the Rwandan genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.
Snapshot: America in the 1970s
From Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech to the Hostage Crisis, here's a look at each year from 1970 to 1979.
San Francisco’s Bubonic Plague Cover-up
As rumor spread of bubonic plague in San Francisco, newspapers couldn't agree if it was a nationwide threat or a plot to destroy the economy. Sound familiar?
Ng Poon Chew
Ng Poon Chew was a writer, a publisher and an advocate for Chinese American civil rights. He established the first Chinese language daily newspaper in America, the Chung Sai Yat Po. This newspaper was a vital resource for the Chinese community during the plague outbreak in San Francisco.
The Chinese Six Companies
On May 28, 1900, San Francisco policemen formed a perimeter around Chinatown, and set about building an eight-foot high wall around the district using cement blocks and barbed wire. Officials diagnosed bubonic plague in the neighborhood and wanted to quarantine the nearly 20,000 residents. As tensions flared, an influential group of merchants known as the Chinese Six Companies sprang into action.
The War on Rats
In 1900, the first case of bubonic plague to ever be confirmed in North America was diagnosed in San Francisco.
Scientists did not understand how the disease was transmitted but had long theorized that rats played a role.
Rupert Blue
In 1901, Rupert Blue launched a public health campaign that ended a deadly bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco.
Dr. Joseph Kinyoun
Dr. Joseph Kinyoun created the Hygienic Laboratory, the nation’s first federal laboratory of medical bacteriology which later became the National Institutes of Health.
Trailer | Plague at the Golden Gate
Follow the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900.
The Asian American and Pacific Islander History
American Experience celebrates The Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Experience.
Supported by
