On this day in 1953, the U.S. and British governments initiated a coup d'état against the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh had been preparing to nationalize Iran's British-owned oil fields.

Mosaddegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), later re-named British Petroleum, and to limit the company's control over Iranian oil reserves. When the AIOC refused to cooperate with the Iranian government, the parliament voted to nationalize Iran's oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.

In response, the British began a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically and engaged in subterfuge to undermine Mosaddegh's government.

Judging Mosaddegh to be unreliable and fearing a communist takeover, Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration overthrew Iran's government. The coup action was also supported by the Iranian clergy, who opposed Mosaddegh's secularism.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hired mobsters to stage pro-Shah riots and paid people to travel to Tehran and take over the streets of the city. Between 200 and 300 people were killed in the ensuing mayhem.

Mosaddegh was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason by the Shah's military court. Many of his supporters were imprisoned, several received the death penalty. Mosaddegh himself lived the rest of his life under house arrest, dying in 1967.

After the coup, the Shah ruled as a monarch for the next 26 years until he was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

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  • thelastaxolotl [he/him]
    hexagon
    M
    ·
    1 month ago

    Also nerds important news, looks like Xiaopang the orange dog was abused by its owner in other to make the videos, tweet

    CW: animal abuse

    These videos are reuploads in response to the backlash of xiao pang's treatment in 2022. his owner would sometimes hit him on live broadcasts and the stress responses were even more obvious. People also noticed how his lower teeth were missing compared to earlier videos in 2018.

    Viewers suspected he would use needles to instigate certain reactions, as seen in that video. In one broadcast, the owner admitted that he needed to mistreat xiao pang in order to gain followers. The local provincial police was even involved with investigation at some point.

    If you search "小胖 虐待" for evidence of xiao pang's abuse, articles were posted in 2022 at the height of this controversy on douyin. Given the outreach of many Chinese netizens, it is fair to assume that xiao pang was mistreated and we should stop sharing content of his abuse.

    • rhubarb [he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      That twitter video immediately spawned accusations of animal abuse, and this "proof" of abuse seems to just be a similar reaction on the Chinese internet in the past. That tooth accusation especially seems a little strange, because even if it was missing them, you wouldn't normally assume it was a sign of abuse. It being a main piece of evidence makes the whole accusation weaker.

      I'm not a dog trainer so I don't know how you would get one to show aggression on command without abuse, so the owner might still be abusive, but I do know people love to be weird towards animals and Chinese people on the internet. The evidence is inconclusive in my opinion.

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]
      ·
      1 month ago

      No!!! My glorious Xiaopang :(

      I really hope other famous animals from China aren't in similar situations. I love sharing images of Uncle Bao Bao, Tole Tole, Dou Dou (Oye), and other pets with friends. But those generally aren't doing anything on cue, they just look funny, so I think it's less likely that they're being abused for content.