Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ruhollah Khomeini was born on the 17th of May 1900 in the small town of Khomeyn, located in what is now Iran's Markazi province. He was born into a family of clerics and merchants who had migrated from Nishapur in northeastern Iran to the Kingdom of Awadh in India before settling in Khomeyn in 1839.
During his 14 years in exile, Ruhollah Khomeini developed a political theory known as Velayat-e Faqih, or the Guardianship of the Jurist. This theory argued that Islamic law should be the sole basis of governance and that the ruler of an Islamic state must be a faqih, a jurist who surpasses all others in knowledge of Islamic law and justice.
Ruhollah Khomeini died on the 3rd of June 1989 after suffering five heart attacks in ten days. The funeral was attended by up to 10 million people, one fifth of Iran's population, and is considered the second-largest funeral in history.
In early 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, an India-born British author whose novel The Satanic Verses was alleged to commit blasphemy against Islam. The fatwa required not only Rushdie's execution but also the killing of all those involved in the publication of the book.
Ali Khamenei was elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on the 4th of June 1989, succeeding Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei was designated as successor after Khomeini removed the requirement that the Supreme Leader be a Marja, allowing a jurist with suitable revolutionary credentials but lacking scholarly ones to take the position.