Seoul: Today marks a significant day in Korean history, commemorating events that have left an indelible mark on the nation. On this day in 1932, Korean activist Yun Bong-gil carried out a daring attack on Japanese officials in Shanghai. Armed with two bombs hidden in lunch boxes, Yun targeted a gathering of Japanese military leaders celebrating Emperor Hirohito's birthday, resulting in the deaths of seven top officials. The act was a protest against Japan's colonization of Korea, and Yun was subsequently executed in Japan later that year.
According to Yonhap News Agency, other historical events on this day include the closure of the South Korean Embassy in Saigon in 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam War. In 1978, South Korea saw the commencement of its first nuclear power plant, Kori No. 1, which began commercial operations.
In 1991, a unified women's table tennis team from both South and North Korea won the world championships in Chiba, Japan, showcasing a rare moment of unity on the international stage. Fast forward to 1998, Samsung Electronics Co. made headlines by becoming the world's first producer of a 256MB DRAM chip, significantly impacting the global market for this technology.
The year 2010 was marked by tragedy as South Korea held a mass funeral for 46 sailors killed in North Korea's sinking of the warship Cheonan. In 2013, South Korea's National Assembly condemned Japan's attempts to glorify its militaristic past through a resolution.
In 2014, President Park Geun-hye publicly apologized for the government's failures during the Sewol ferry disaster, which claimed 304 lives, most of them high school students. In 2017, the USS Carl Vinson began a joint naval drill with the South Korean Navy amid rising tensions from North Korea's failed missile launch.
Lastly, in 2022, the South Korean government announced the lifting of the outdoor mask mandate, which had been in place since October 2020. This decision followed the scrapping of all social distancing measures, marking a significant step towards normalcy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.