Tiananmen 1989
Build-up to the bloody crackdown on protesters in the Chinese capital 30 years ago
April 15
Death of dismissed reformer and ex-communist Party boss Hu Yaobang
April 17
First student protest on Tiananmen Square, to lay wreath honouring Hu, adorned with pro-democracy slogans
April 22
Hu Yaobang’s funeral disrupted by student demonstration in the square
April 25
People’s Daily calls protests “plot” against regime
April 27 Protests erupt across the country May 4
Over a million demonstrate commemorating the historic Chinese student demonstration of May 4, 1919
May 13
Students launch occupation of Tiananmen Square and a hunger strike
May 15
Student protests disrupt visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
May 17
About 1.2 million students, workers, civil servants, intellectuals protest in Beijing, major demonstrations across the country
May 18
Premier Li Peng meets student leaders in nationally televised meeting
May 19
Zhao Ziyang, Communist Party boss, pleads with hunger strikers to leave the square
May 20
Martial law declared
May 26
Zhao Ziyang purged from Party leadership, put under house arrest two days later
May 29
Students erect the “Goddess of Liberty” statue, facing the portrait of former leader Mao Zedong
June 3
Students, citizens block military vehicles at Beijing’s major intersections
June 3-4
Army evacuates Tiananmen Square. Soldiers flanked by tanks open fire in streets of Beijing. Hundreds, possibly more than 1,000, killed
June 5
An unknown Chinese citizen blocks a column of tanks -- becomes known as “Tank Man”