In a square at Tehran University on January 13, 1979, students chant and hold up images of Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini and the former prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, who had been deposed in a 1953 U.S.-supported coup.

Photojournalist David Burnett said that many of his 44 days spent documenting the revolution would include a campus visit.

As it is during the 2009 protests, in 1978-79 "the university was a center of action, even during the hostage crisis," Burnett said. "That they could get that kind of a crowd on just 12 hours notice was stunning. All they had back then [to announce protests] was mosques and the radio. But man, did it work."