AP Photographer Jeff Widener happened to be in Beijing for a summit between China's leaders and Mikhail Gorbachev when he captured this amazing shot. The "Tank Man" or "The Unknown Rebel" came to symbolize the moral authority of ordinary Chinese people, who had had enough of the government's crack-down on unarmed protestors in Tiananmen Square.
This brave citizen appears to be just an ordinary urban worker - he probably isn't a student protestor. He put his body and his life on the line in an effort to stop the tanks that were crushing dissent in the center of Beijing. Nobody knows what happened to the Tank Man after this moment. He was hustled away - by concerned friends or by undercover cops, nobody can tell.
Read an interview with Tank Man photographer Jeff Widener, who was threatened and injured while taking this photo.
Learn more about what happened during the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
