Day of Defenders of Lithuania's Freedom remembered by a tribute run in the National Mall
Lithuanian Americans and friends of Lithuania braved the snowstorm and on January 13 participated in a tribute run in memoria of Lithuanian citizens killed by Soviet tanks on January 13, 1991, when the Soviet army unsuccessfully tried to crash Lithuania's Independence. Atraditional International Tribute Run of "Life and Death" is organized in Vilnius on January 12/13 every year since 1992. Lithuanian embassies, communities and friends of Lithuania across the world also join this tradition.
On the night of 13 January 1991, Loreta Asanavičiūtė, Virginijus Druskis, Darius Gerbutavičius, Rolandas Jankauskas, Rimantas Juknevičius, Alvydas Kanapinskas, Algimantas Petras Kavoliukas, Vidas Maciulevičius, Titas Masiulis, Alvydas Matulka, Apolinaras Juozas Povilaitis, Ignas Šimulionis, and Vytautas Vaitkus died while defending the TV Tower and the building of the Lithuanian Radio and Television Committee in Vilnius. Vytautas Koncevičius and Stasys Mačiulskas died later in February and April, respectively, as the result of their injuries.
