As the oil boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s gave way to rampant inflation and unemployment, Mohammad Rezā Shāh found his worst nightmares realized when all sectors of persian society rallied in opposition to the regime under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini. Cycles of protest and repression escalated from the spring of 1977 until, finally, on January 4, 1979, the Shāh agreed to appoint Shahpur Bakhtiar (d. 1991) as prime minister and leave the country. Mohammad Rezā Shāh fled Iran for a second time on January 16, 1979.