April 15: Death of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Hu Yaobang, began liberalizing student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the PRC.

Hu Yaobang in April 1989.

General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Chinese student protests began on April 15, 1989, when the Liberal leader Hu Yaobang died of a heart attack while attending a meeting to reform the national education system and liberalized education.

                Tiananmen Square, May 1989

Actually, Hu felt infarction on April 8th and was rushed to hospital but died on April 15. Immediately students in Peking (Beijing) crowded into Tiananmen Square to demand the development of education reforms.

Ousted General Secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Yaobang, dies at age 73

The protests began on April 15, 1989. But a day before Hu Yaobang´s funeral, thousands of students marched to Tiananmen Square demanding liberalization and the education reforms that Hu was willing to accomplish.