Nematollah Nassiri is dismissed from SAVAK

The Yazd protests showed that opposition was not confined to Tehran and had acquired a genuinely national reach.

Forty-day memorials again became political demonstrations across Iran.

Security forces violated the home of Ayatollah Shariatmadari in Qom during the unrest, deepening clerical opposition.

The killing at a senior cleric's home was understood by supporters as proof that sacred and private spaces were no longer protected.

The assault weakened hopes that limited reform could contain the crisis and widened clerical resistance to the Shah.

A new director was appointed in an attempt to change the public face and methods of the monarchy's security apparatus.

Revolution supporters interpreted the personnel change as evidence that sustained protest could force retreats from the state.

Changing its director did not erase memories of imprisonment, torture and surveillance under royal rule.

In a national broadcast, the monarch pledged political liberalization and elections in an effort to calm growing unrest.

Years of controlled politics, censorship and repression made many activists doubt that reform could be delivered under the monarchy.