The event also marked Iran as a "rogue nation," a status it shows little interest in shedding, even today.

It's an anniversary of solemn significance, 66 Americans captured with the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

For Iran's revolutionaries of 1979, this was a triumph over the U.S. superpower.

Bruce Laingen was the embassy's charge d'affaires, held hostage for all 444 days of the crisis.

Today, the U.S. embassy building is a museum of all things anti-American.

Old technical equipment and shredded documents are shown as evidence this was the so-called "den of spies."

The hostage takers were demanding the U.S. hand over the shah, whom they saw as a cruel dictator and puppet of the west.

Dissatisfaction over the handling of the hostage crisis, and a botched rescue attempt, contributed to the defeat of President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Ever since, the Iranian government commemorates the embassy takeover with a rally.

This year, the scene is more complicated.

The regime is chanting "death to America," while it publicly negotiates with the U.S. over its nuclear program.

And protesters are still risking their lives to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as shown in cell phone video posted on the internet.

Thirty years after the embassy takeover, Iran remains a complicated picture, with internal turmoil some are calling a new revolution.