Collected by latimes

May 17, 1989

Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is filled with thousands during a pro-democracy rally,

(Sadayuki Mikami / Associated Press)

May 19, 1989

Beijing police parade through Tiananmen Square carrying banners in support of striking university students. The students were in the sixth day of a hunger strike for political reform.

(Sadayuki Mikami / Associated Press)

May 19, 1989

Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Zhao Ziyang addresses the student hunger strikers through a megaphone at dawn in one of the buses at Tiananmen Square where pro-democracy hunger strikers had been sheltered.

(AFP/Getty Images)

May 21, 1989

An unidentified student demonstrator offers food to People’s Liberation Army troops in Feng Tai near Beijing. The troops’ convoy had been stopped by roadblocks as they were enroute to the Chinese capital.

(Mark Avery / Associated Press)

May 21, 1989

Pro-democracy students lie in front of a tank to prevent troops from entering central Beijing at night. The first full day of martial law closed the Chinese capital, but major clashes between security forces and protesters were reported.

(Associated Press)

May 25, 1989

Student demonstrators, foreground, picket Zhongnanhai, the residence of Communist Party leaders in Beijing as troops guard the entrance. The party compound is near Tiananmen Square.

(Mark Avery / Associated Press)

May 27, 1989

In Tiananmen Square, student leader Wang Dan calls for a citywide march. Wang, a spokesman for the pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, now lives in the U.S.. “I’m a history student,” he says. “I know democratic movements come in waves.”

(Mark Avery / Associated Press)

May 28, 1989

Students rest in the litter of Tiananmen Square as their strike for government reform enters its third week.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

May 30, 1989

Students in Tiananmen Square work to finish a styrofoam “Goddess of Democracy” modeled on the Statue of Liberty. The statue was nearly 30 feet tall.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

May 31, 1989

People reach for copies of a student newsletter printed in Tiananmen Square.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 2, 1989

A woman soldier sings among pro-democracy protesters occupying Tiananmen Square. Police officers and troops would occasionally mix with protesters in an effort to keep the demonstration peaceful. In the early morning hours of June 4, 1989, soldiers overran the square, leaving hundreds dead.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 3, 1989

A young woman is caught between civilians and Chinese soldiers, who were trying to remove her from an assembly near the Great Hall of the People. Pro-democracy protesters had been occupying Tiananmen Square for weeks.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 3, 1989

An anti-government protester in Beijing holds a rifle in a bus window. Pro-democracy protesters had been occupying Tiananmen Square for weeks; hundreds would die that night and the following morning in clashes with Chinese troops.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 3, 1989

A man tries to pull a Chinese soldier away from his fellow troops as thousands of Beijing citizens turn out to block thousands of troops on their way toward Tiananmen Square.

(Mark Avery / Associated Press)

June 4, 1989

A student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines during an early morning army attack on anti-government demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 4, 1989

The driver of an armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines, injuring many, lies dead after being beaten by students who set his vehicle on fire during the army attack on Tiananmen Square protesters.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 4, 1989

Civilians hold rocks as they stand on a government armored vehicle near Changan Boulevard in Beijing. Violence escalated between pro-democracy protesters and Chinese troops, leaving hundreds dead overnight.

June 5, 1989

Chinese troops march down Changan Boulevard, firing indiscriminately to clear the street of citizens as the army faction occupying the center of Beijing prepares for the rumored arrival of opposition troops converging on the capital.

(Associated Press)

June 4, 1989

The bodies of dead civilians lie among mangled bicycles near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Tanks and soldiers stormed the area overnight, bringing a violent end to student demonstrations for democratic reform in China.

(Associated Press)

June 5, 1989

An anti-government protester stands in front of tanks in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in the wake of the crackdown. Chinese supreme leader Deng Xiaoping is believed to have given the final orders for the military suppression of the pro-democracy protests, which claimed hundreds of lives.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 5, 1989

A truck drives Chinese soldiers down Changan Boulevard one day after violence between government troops and pro-democracy protesters left hundreds dead.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)

June 6, 1989

Soldiers guarding Tiananmen Square hunker down behind barricades while heavy artillery looms in the background under the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

(Terril Jones / Associated Press)

June 12, 1989

Street sweepers clean around a burned-out city bus on Changan Boulevard. The bus was burned in the anti-government melee when it was placed by demonstrators as a barricade against advancing troops a week earlier.

(Jeff Widener / Associated Press)