In September, Apadana, Iran’s first dedicated art gallery, is opened in Tehran by artists Mahmoud Javadipour, Hushang Ajudani, and Hossein Kazemi.
Painter Jalil Ziapour, graduate of Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, founds the Khorous Jangi (Fighting Cock) Art Society along with writer Gholam Hussein Gharib, poet Manuchehr Sheibani, and playwright Hasan Shirvani. Ziapour’s atelier becomes a popular meeting spot of Tehran’s avant-garde, and the society begins publishing the modernist art and literature Khorous Jangi. Ziapour designs the magazine’s cubist-inspired rooster logo.
The Tudeh Party is outlawed after an attempted assassination of the Shah is attributed to a member of the group.
Apadana Gallery closes in July.
In March, the majles (Iranian parliament ) approves a program for oil nationalization.
In April, the parliament votes to install Mohammad Mosaddegh as Prime Minister. The following month, Mosaddegh nationalizes the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Britain freezes Iranian assets, blockades Iran’s ports, and lodges a complaint at the International Co
In July, Mohammad Reza Shah and Mossadegh clash publicly after the latter attempts to reform electoral law to limit the monarch’s power. After addressing the public in a radio broadcast speech, Mossadegh is successful in winning public support through strikes and demonstrations, and forces the Shah to back down from his position.
In August, as Iran continues to suffer economically due to its blockaded and boycotted oil industry, the CIA, British Intelligence, and a cadre of Iranian military leaders engineer a successful coup to overthrow Mosaddegh and replace him as Prime Minister with a Shah loyalist general. Eisenhower proclaims the coup a victory by the Iranian people acting out of “profound love for their monarchy.”
Marcos Grigorian, an Italian educated Iranian painter, opens Galerie Esthétique in Tehran, one of Iran’s earliest and most influential modern art galleries.
Iran joins the Baghdad Pact, a British-backed alliance of Middle East powers designed to curb Soviet influence in the region.
