Tiananmen Massacre

Former Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang dies of a massive heart attack. A official memorial is held the next day, three students carry a petition and kneel on the Great Hall steps in front of 100,000 students who have gathered at the square the night before.

The Communist Party newspaper People's Daily publishes an editorial accusing a "small handful of plotters" of stirring up student unrest and creating turmoil in order to overthrow the Communist Party and the socialist system. Ignoring warnings of violent suppression, students from more than 40 universities march to Tiananmen in protest of the April 26th editorial.

Several hundred students begin a hunger strike at Tiananmen Square in the afternoon. Elected students charges with the responsibility for dialogue with the government begin formal talks with the government. Twelve of China's most famous writers and scholars present their emergency appeals at the Square, calling on the government to acknowledge the movement as a patriotic democracy movement and calling on the students to end their hunger strike. Their efforts fail.

Hunger strikes continue until May 19th until the students call it off and instead declare a massive sit-in and the IWU (Independant Workers Union) is founded in Tiananmen Square.

The government formally declares martial law in Beijing, but the army's advance towards the city is blocked by large numbers of students and citizens.

The ten-meter-high Goddess of Democracy is unveiled, it symbolises the movement and attracts much attention from the community.

At 5:00 pm, Liu Xiaobo, Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo and Gao Xin start a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square.

Troops receive orders to reclaim Tiananmen Square at all cost. Around 10:00 pm, soldiers open fire on people who try to block the army's advance, as well as on those who are simply shouting at the troops. Tanks and armored personnel carriers move toward the center of the city. Many people in the streets are killed or wounded, including bystanders.

Around 1:00 am, troops surround Tiananmen Square and await further orders. Around 4:00 am, the four men who began a hunger strike on June 2 negotiate with the troops to allow the students to leave the Square. Around 5:00 am, several thousand students, and their teachers and supporters leave the Square at gunpoint

An anonymous man stands in front of a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks the morning after the Chinese military forcibly removed protestors from in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square.