Jan Palach
Czech student who killed himself by self-immolation in protest (1948-1969) · Czechia · On the map · Died at 20
A Czech student who set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square in 1969, protesting the Soviet-led invasion that crushed his country's brief political thaw.
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Jan Palach was born on 11 August 1948 and became a student of history and political economics at Charles University in Prague. In 1968, the Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia, ending the reform period known as the Prague Spring. On 19 January 1969, at the age of 20, Palach chose self-immolation as his form of political protest against the occupation. He died that day, his act intended to wake a country sliding into what would become two decades of renewed authoritarian rule.