The most significant two events happened almost concurrently. The Iranian Islamic revolution is well known but not the second which was the siege of the grand mosque in Mecca. The two events are considered the most significant that drove people from secular Arab Nationalism to Islamism. This book greatly outlines this: https://www.amazon.com/Siege-Mecca-Forgotten-Uprising-al-Qaeda/dp/0385519257
Luckily my library has a "things you've checked out in the past" feature on their website:
http://www.amazon.com/Siege-Mecca-Forgotten-Uprising-al-Qaeda/dp/0385519257