Czechs marked the 50th anniversary on Wednesday of student Jan Palach setting himself on fire in central Prague in a desperate act aimed at lifting the apathy hanging over the country in the wake of the Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring of 1968.
Having seen a period of reforms to Czechoslovakia's communist system snuffed out by the invasion five months earlier, and the widespread public demoralization that followed, the 20-year-old Palach decided to take action.
He went to Wenceslas Square on Jan. 16, 1969, poured gas over his head and set himself on fire. Passers-by smothered him with their coats, but the student of economics and philosophy died three days later of his burns.