40 YEARS ON

Jan. 16, 1969 - Jan Palach, a student at Charles University in Prague, protesting the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces as well as the abandonment of democracy by Czechoslovak politicians, doused himself with flammable liquid, set a match to his clothes and set himself aflame on Wenceslas Square near the statue of St. Wenceslas at 3 p.m.