1885 — A British vessel patrolling East Asia occupies Geomun, a small island off the Korean Peninsula’s south coast, on the pretext of blocking a southward expansion by Russia.
1910 — Korean linguist Ju Si-gyeong publishes a grammar book that consolidates the modern-day usage of the Korean language.
1912 — Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea and father of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is born in South Pyongan Province, the southwestern region of the country. He joined the Chinese Communist Party and was trained in the Soviet Union before returning to Pyongyang and assuming the leadership of the country. He died in 1994 of heart failure.
1919 — Japanese police kill a group of Korean villagers in Jeam-ri, Gyeonggi Province, following their participation in street demonstrations for independence from the Japanese colonial regime. The Japanese police drove the villagers into a church, closed all the doors and opened fire before torching the building.
1949 — The Marine Corps is inaugurated
in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province.
1969 — North Korea shoots down a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the East Sea.
1990 — Pyunghwa Broadcasting Corp., a Roman Catholic Church-operated television and radio station, opens in Seoul.
1999 — A Korean Air cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, killing seven people and injuring 40.
2002 — A Chinese passenger plane crashes in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, killing 129 people.
2003 — The Seoul government extradites a South Korean who committed a crime in Japan. It was the first South Korean action taken under an extradition treaty signed between the two countries.
2009 — North Korea says it has withdrawn from nuclear disarmament talks and restores its nearly disabled nuclear facilities, challenging the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of its long-range rocket launch nine days before.
2010 — South Korea salvages its 1,200-ton naval ship Cheonan that sank in waters off its west coast on March 26. A joint investig
ation by local and international experts later concluded the ship sank after a torpedo attack by North Korean submarines. The incident left 40 South Korean sailors killed and six others missing.
2020 — The ruling Democratic Party wins a landslide victory in the 21st general elections, securing an overwhelming majority of 180 parliamentary seats out of a total of 300. The elections were one of the first held by a major country since the COVID-19 crisis began sweeping the globe.
2022 — The government announces a decision to lift all social distancing rules, except the mask mandate, such as limits on the size of private gatherings and operating hours for restaurants, which had been enforced for two years and one month to fight the spread of COVID-19. The rules were lifted three days later.
Source: Yonhap News Agency