February 23 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.

The Chinese effectively held the Portuguese embassy hostage, using them as a bargaining chip in demanding that the Portuguese restore the deposed Malaccan Sultan (King) to his throne.

April 24-25 - Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters.

The five British embassy hostages kidnapped in Ethiopia today spoke of their ordeal as Ethiopian officials accused neighbouring Eritrea of orchestrating the abduction.

On 20 January 1981 the 52 United States embassy hostages arrived at the airport after they departed Tehran, Iran.

Fowzi Badavi Nejad,the only survivor of that group,had survived only because some of the embassy hostages had put themselves between him and the SAS soldiers.

For example, most accounts agree that people claiming to be Iranian agents did approach the Reagan campaign about the embassy hostages.

The embassy hostages were subsequently scattered across Iran to make a second rescue attempt impossible.

He cited the Iranian mistreatment of Americans going back to the 444 days that embassy hostages were held until Inauguration Day, 1981.

Khomeini is said not only to have blessed taking the embassy hostages but to have held on to them with the specific aim of costing Carter votes in 1980 -+as a payback for 1953.