-
Death of Hu Yaobang
-
Mourning of Hu Yaobang
-
Period: to
Unrest Spreads
-
Hu Yaobang's Memorial
-
Controversial Editorial
-
Period: to
Students Return to Class
-
Hunger Strike
-
Mikhail Gorbachev Arrives
-
Divided Politburo
-
Li Peng Meets with Students
Li Peng holds a televised meeting with student leaders in the Great Hall of People. It ends without any progress. -
Martial Law Declared
-
Troops Move in Toward the Center of Beijing
A big number of protestors block the road when the troops move in. The civillians start talking with the solidiers trying to tell them why they shouldn't be there. "You had these … touching moments of the people appealing to the army to join them, and feeding them, and giving them water, and saying, you know, 'Could be your son. Could be your daughter,'"says Orville Schell, who was in Beijing at that time.The soldiers are told not to fire at civillians.They are unable to get to Tiananmen Square -
The PLA Withdraws
The troops are finally able to leave. The government takes this as a humiliation and a challenge. "The party leaders feared that the whole edifice of communism was going to collapse, They needed to make a stand, and a bloody stand, to show their population, and in effect, to cow their population, back into submission." says journalist John Pomfret. -
Period: to
Police/Government Don't Act
The army, police and government are told to not fight against the protestors or shoot at them. -
Goddess of Democracy Statue
A group of art students from an university made this statue to symbolize the Goddess of Freedom and Democracy. -
Approves troops to be able to fire at civillians
-
Tiananmen Massacre
On June third, the People's Liberation Army invaded Tiananmen Square. They tore down the barricades the protesters created, shot armor piercing rounds indiscriminately killing many bystanders, and crushed the protesters with tanks. They even killed the ambulances and people trying to save their peers. The protesters decided to fight back. They threw rocks, sticks, and molotov cocktails. They got on tanks and pulled the soldiers out to burn them. They did everything they could, but the military m -
Tiananmen Massacre Continues
2,500 Killed, 7,000 Wounded -
The Tank Man/Unknown Rebel
Tank Man was an ordinary man holding shopping bags, but he did an extraordinary thing. He blocked the way of a column of tanks trying to get to Tiananmen Square after the protests and even confronted the soldiers in the first tank. After a few minutes of the man blocking the way of the tanks, he was hushed off by an unknown group of men. Most of the incident was a mystery.
