On this day: January 16

POSTED: 02:39 PM PST Jan 15, 2013    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Jan 15, 2013 

"Don Quixote" is first published, Prohibition is ratified and goes into effect, Hitler moves underground, and the space shuttle Columbia takes off for the last time, all on this day.

OTD January 16 - Shah of Iran
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Public domain

1979: Amid mounting strikes and demonstrations, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, flees the country with his family for exile in Egypt. The departure of the last Persian monarch leads to collapse of the royal reign a few weeks later and its eventual replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution.

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