November 6, 1986: A Lebanese magazine reveals the U.S. is secretly selling weapons to Iran. The scandal expands; profits were illegally funding Nicaraguan Contras. Oliver North testifies in uniform before Congress. Reagan claims ignorance. Discover how the Iran-Contra affair exposed covert operations, raised constitutional questions about executive power, and established patterns of government secrecy that persist today.

November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes is caught beneath Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder, foiling the most ambitious terrorist plot in British history. The conspiracy failed, but 420 years later we still "Remember, remember the fifth of November." Discover how a failed Catholic terrorist became a global icon of rebellion, from bonfires to Anonymous masks.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and seized 66 Americans. What began as a protest would become a 444-day crisis that dominated American news, destroyed Jimmy Carter's presidency, and poisoned U.S.-Iran relations for generations.

Join host Richard Backus as we explore the crisis that changed American foreign policy. Discover how the CIA's 1953 coup installing the Shah created resentment that exploded 25 years later. Learn about the nightly news coverage that counted "Day 100... Day 200..." and made the crisis impossible to escape. Follow the failed Operation Eagle Claw rescue mission that left eight servicemen dead in the Iranian desert. And witness the bitter irony of the hostages' release—timed deliberately for the moment Ronald Reagan took office, denying Carter even that final victory.

From Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution to yellow ribbons tied around American trees, from diplomatic humiliation to the limits of superpower might—this is the story of 444 days that changed everything.