Dec. 21
1905 -- Ito Hirobumi, the mastermind behind Japan's takeover of Korea, is named his country's first ruler of the Korean Peninsula.
1968 -- The Seoul-Incheon Highway is opened.
1979 -- Choi Kyu-hah is sworn in as South Korea's 10th president.
2001 -- Pitcher Park Chan-ho s...14:00 Dec. 20
Dec. 20
1974 -- North Korean spy Moon Se-gwang is executed for assassinating first lady Yook Young-su, the wife of President Park Chung-hee.
1979 -- A military court sentences KCIA chief Kim Jae-kyu and six others to death for assassinating President Park Chung-hee on Oct. 26, 1979. The m...14:00 Dec. 19
Dec. 19
1932 -- Korean independence activist Yun Bong-gil is executed in Japan for assassinating seven top Japanese military leaders. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
1962 -- South Korea and Switzerland establish diplomatic ties.
1992 -- Opposition leader Kim Da...14:00 Dec. 18
Dec. 18
1973 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with Bangladesh.
1991 -- President Roh Tae-woo says he will make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
1992 -- Kim Young-sam, a candidate of the ruling Democratic Liberal Party, is elected the 14th president of South...14:00 Dec. 17
Dec. 17
1962 -- The fifth Constitutional Amendment is ratified by 78.78 percent of affirmative votes in the country's first-ever national referendum, reforming the administration into a presidential system and transforming the National Assembly into a unicameral house.
1963 -- Park Chung-...14:00 Dec. 16
Dec. 16
1947 -- North Korea implements its first currency reforms in an effort to strengthen its economic system, separate from that of the Soviet Union, and to prevent the inflow of the South Korean currency.
The country had used four kinds of bills issued by the Soviet military command s...14:00 Dec. 15
Dec. 15
1928 -- The Salvation Army, which started missionary work in Korea in 1908, places a donation collection bucket on a Seoul street for the first time.
1970 -- The 362-ton Namyoung-ho, en route to the southern port city of Busan from Jeju, sinks in waters off islands near the southe...14:00 Dec. 14
Dec. 14
1926 -- Independence fighter Kim Koo is inaugurated as chief marshal of the Korean Provisional Government, which was set up in Shanghai, during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945.
1950 -- The United Nations approves a resolution for the establishment of a ...14:00 Dec. 13
Dec. 13
1863 -- Emperor Gojong ascends to the throne at the age of 12 to become the 26th monarch of the Joseon Dynasty. His reign lasts until 1907, during which his wife, Empress Myeongseong, is killed by Japanese assassins in 1895. Japan later annexes the country and rules the peninsula for ...14:00 Dec. 12
Dec. 12
1948 -- The U.N. General Assembly recognizes the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea, as the legal government of Korea.
1979 -- Army Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan stages a coup against President Choi Kyu-ha, ordering the arrest of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Jeong Seung-hwa...14:00 Dec. 11
Dec. 11
1952 -- South Korea joins the International Civil Aviation Organization.
1969 -- A Korean Air passenger flight from the eastern city of Gangneung to Seoul with 51 people aboard is hijacked by North Koreans and forced to land in Pyongyang. North Korea repatriated 39 of the hijacked...14:00 Dec. 10
Dec. 10
1973 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with India.
2000 -- South Korean President Kim Dae-jung receives the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts for reconciliation between South and North Korea, and for democracy and human rights in East Asia, becoming his...14:00 Dec. 09
Dec. 9
1930 -- The governor-general of Joseon, Japan's colonial administration maintained from 1910 to 1945 in Korea, announces its census figure for the Korean population as 21,057,969. Joseon was Korea's last dynasty.
1964 -- South Korea's first TV soap opera airs on TBC.
1991 -- S...14:00 Dec. 08
Dec. 8
1995 -- Former President Choi Kyu-hah receives a summons for testimony in relation to a coup and massacre in Gwangju.
1997 -- Daewoo Motor announces plans to take over Ssangyong Motor.
2002 -- South and North Korea agree to open a temporary road between Seoul and Sinuiju.
2003 ...14:00 Dec. 07
Dec. 7
1994 -- A gas explosion occurs at a valve station of Korea Gas Corp. in Ahyeong-dong, western Seoul, during construction, killing 12 and injuring at least 101 others.
1996 -- FIFA, the world's soccer governing body, decides at its headquarters in Zurich to have Seoul hold the open...14:00 Dec. 06
Dec. 6
1971 -- President Park Chung-hee declares a state of emergency in South Korea, citing a threatened invasion by North Korea. The move drastically curtails freedom of speech, thus helping him tighten his grip on power.
1979 -- The nation's electoral college, called the National Confe...14:00 Dec. 05
Dec. 5
1906 -- Ahn Ik-tae, the composer of South Korea's national anthem, is born in Pyongyang.
1907 -- Lee Eun, the crown prince of Korea's Joseon Dynasty, leaves for Tokyo on a Japan-imposed study tour three years before Japan colonizes the Korean Peninsula.
1994 -- South Korea announ...14:00 Dec. 04
Dec. 4
1884 -- Kim Ok-kyun, Pak Yong-hyo and other young reformist officials, supported by the Japanese government, briefly seize power in a coup, seeking to modernize and open Korea's last kingdom, the Yi Dynasty. The new group believed Korea should emulate Japan, which institutionalized ref...14:00 Dec. 03
Dec. 3
1952 -- The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution calling for the transfer of all Korean War prisoners to a politically neutral location.
1995 -- Former President Chun Doo-hwan is indicted on corruption charges, as well as for his role in the coup through which he ros...14:00 Dec. 02
Dec. 2
1946 -- Korean independence fighter Rhee Syng-man, who later became South Korea's first president, visits the United States with a proposal that his country set up its own government. Korea had regained sovereignty the previous year after 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, as a result...14:00 Dec. 01