Timeline Sunday 4 June 1989

Events on Sunday 4 June 1989 3

• 1980 – 1989 Solidarity Movement Solidarność The first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country, which led to the fall of the Iron Curtain.
• 1989 Solidarity wins Polish elections First partly free elections in the Eastern Bloc Poland held semi-free parliamentary elections in which the Solidarity trade union movement won nearly every contested seat. The result led to the formation of the first non-Communist-led government in the Eastern Bloc later that year. The vote took place on the same day as the Tiananmen Square crackdown in China.
• 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre 4 June 1989 — pro-democracy protesters crushed by the military Following weeks of pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government declared martial law and sent in the army on the night of 3–4 June 1989. Tanks and soldiers killed an estimated hundreds to thousands of protesters. The iconic image of a lone man blocking a column of tanks became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. The crackdown ended China's brief period of political liberalisation.