'Tank Man' Makes Stand in Tiananmen Square

On June 4, 1989, the Chinese military violently suppressed peaceful protesters in China. Led by students seeking economic reform and freedom of speech, the country-wide protests lasted seven weeks, and peaked at about 500,000 protesters gathered in Tiananmen in Beijing. The 6-4 Incident, as it is known in China, became famous for the iconic image of a single unarmed protester, referred to as Tank Man, standing in front of a column of People's Liberation Army tanks. Casualty estimates for the incident range up to the thousands.