AP WAS THERE: Shah leaves Iran as 1979 revolution looms

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Jan. 16, 1979, Iran's powerful Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi abandoned his Peacock Throne and left his nation, never to return home, setting the stage for the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution a month later.

His departure and the ensuing chaos blindsided the United States, which for decades relied on Iran and its absolute ruler as Washington's closest Mideast ally. Washington sold billions of dollars in weaponry to the shah, whom America empowered in a CIA-backed 1953 coup, and stationed sensitive spying stations in northern Iran to monitor the Soviet Union.

The shah's departure, initially described as a "vacation," came as he was fatally stricken with cancer. His arrival in America after months abroad would spark the U.S.