Back in 1989 -- June 4 incident is the Tiananmen Square confrontation, Beijing

from Writer's Almanac (Minnesota Public Radio, Garrison Keillor)

It's the anniversary of the June 4th Incident, otherwise known as the Tiananmen Square Incident, in Beijing (1989). In the late 1980s, Chinese students and intellectuals began calling for economic and political reform in the wake of a period of great economic growth in China. The former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Yaobang, was also in favor of a more democratic China, but he was forced out of office in 1987. He died in April 1989, and on the day of his funeral, 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to demand reform; similar protests also arose in cities across China, but the Western media was already in Beijing to cover a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, so the Tiananmen Square protests drew the most international attention. By May, about a million people were demonstrating.

The government responded by issuing warnings to disperse, but to no avail. Martial law was declared in mid-May, but crowds of protestors blocked all avenues to the square and the army was unable to get through. Desperate to prevent anarchy, the government massed tanks and heavily armed troops overnight on June 3, and the next morning they rolled into Tiananmen Square, crushing or shooting anyone who stood in their way. Most of the protestors in the square fled and the military had complete control by June 5. The official Chinese government death toll was 241, with 7,000 wounded; other estimates place the number much higher.