The Tank Man

Twenty years back, on June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square in Beijing saw demonstrations (mainly by students and other intellectuals) in favor of freedom of speech and democracy that ended as a bloody evening after the military opened indiscriminate fire on the protesters. The next day one single man, identity unknown till today, dared to stand in front of the tanks entering the city.

This photo taken by Jeff Widener soon became an iconic one after the photographer managed to hide his film roll from the Chinese agents. The tanks tried to go around the Tank Man, but he refused to give way. Then the tanks seemed to stop their motors. The man climbed on the front tank, spoke something to the driver and came down.
Immediately after that some men were seen taking this man away from the scene. Some people think they were government agents and the Tank Man was executed after a few days while some believe he is still alive in mainland China.
(See the youtube video series The Tank Man).