Here's a timeline of Iranian history...

...from The Sun magazine, the latest issue of which includes an insightful collection of blog entries by Iranian citizens. Note how Western intervention disrupted the country's development 50 years ago - and how Iran's current president, Mr. Angry Nuclear Guy, was elected just last year...a reaction to more-recent Western meddling in the Middle East, perhaps?

1953: To protect Western oil interests, U.S. and British intelligence agencies orchestrate a coup, overthrowing the Iranian prime minister and reinstating the traditional monarch, the shah, a pro-American dictator.

1979: The shah is deposed during the Iranian Revolution, and Iran becomes an Islamic republic. A president and parliament are elected, but true power is held by a council of clerics headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

1980: Iraq invades Iran, starting the Iran-Iraq War.

1988: A cease-fire is declared, and the war ends in a stalemate.

1997: Iranian voters reject the state-approved presidential candidate and elect reformist Mohammad Khatami by a wide margin.

2001: Khatami is reelected, but meaningufl reforms are blocked by the conservative clerics who control the government.

2005: Hard-line conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected president.