Opinion - The Korea Times

TUESDAY, Dec. 9, 2025

536-Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire 1212-Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz 1941-China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy 1948-U.N. General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide 1968-Douglas Engelbart demonstrates in "The Mother of All Demos" the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience in San Francisco, showcasing for the first time the mouse, word processing, windows, hypertext links, video conferencing, real-time collaboration, and other modern computing concepts 1967-Nicolae Ceaușescu becomes President of Romania (overthrown in 1989) 1990-Lech Wałęsa wins the first direct presidential election in Poland 1992-U.S. Marines and allied nations launch an amphibious and airborne operation in Mogadishu, Somalia to restore order to the war-torn nation. Authorized by U.N. Security Council Resolution 794 passed on Dec. 3.

Dec 8, 2025

MONDAY, Dec. 8, 2025

1863-Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South 1941-U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan, U.S. enters World War II 1941-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his famous "Day of Infamy" speech to a joint session of Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor 1965-Pope Paul VI closes final session of the Second Vatican Council - an influential ecumenical council that significantly modernized church practices 1966-U.S. and USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space 2004-Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations 2024-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigns and flees to Moscow after rebel forces sweep into the capital city of Damascus

Dec 7, 2025

THURSDAY, Dec. 4, 2025

1534-Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad 1563-Council of Trent holds its last session after 18 years, the last ecumenical council for more than 300 years 1619-Thirty-eight colonists from Berkeley Parish, England, disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God, considered by many the first Thanksgiving in the Americas 1791-Britain's "The Observer" is first published and becomes the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world 1829-Britain outlaws "suttee" in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre 1918-U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France

Dec 3, 2025

WEDNESDAY, Dec.3, 2025

1586-Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia 1854-Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences 1967-South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the world's first human-to-human heart transplant, on Louis Washkansky, at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town; he survives for 18 days 1971-India invades West Pakistan claiming hundreds of lives and starting the full scale Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 1984-Bhopal disaster: A Union Carbide pesticide plant leaks 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, officially killing 2,259 - other estimates are as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured 1989-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over 1992-U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 794 authorizing US led allied forces to intervene in war-torn Somalia to restore order and allow humanitarian aid to be del

Dec 2, 2025

TUESDAY, Dec. 1, 2025

1804-General Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French at the Notre Dame de Paris in a ceremony officiated by Pope Pius VII 1823-U.S. President James Monroe declares the "Monroe Doctrine" opposing European colonialism in the Americas, arguing any European political intervention in the New World would be a hostile act against the United States 1845-U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West, a widely held belief termed "manifest destiny" by newspaper editor John O'Sullivan 1929-First skull of Peking man found in the caves of Zhoukoudian, 50 km outside of Peking, China. Later dated roughly 750,000 years old. 1976-Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado

Dec 1, 2025

MONDAY, Dec. 1, 2025

1913-Ford Motor Company institutes the world's first moving assembly line for the Model T Ford 1934-Leningrad mayor Sergei Kirov is assassinated, Joseph Stalin uses it as an excuse to begin his Great Purge of 1934-38 1955-Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move to the back of a bus and give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama 1986-Musée d'Orsay opens in Paris 1988-Benazir Bhutto is named Prime Minister of Pakistan, the first female leader of a Muslim country 1990-British and French workers meet in the middle of the Channel Tunnel 40 m under the English Channel, marking a major engineering achievement

Nov 30, 2025

FRIDAY, Nov. 28, 2028

1520-Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan begins crossing the Pacific Ocean 1814-The Times of London is first printed by automatic, steam-powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, making newspapers available to a mass audience 1893-New Zealand women vote for the first time in a national election [1] 1919-American-born Lady Nancy Astor is elected as the first female member of the British House of Commons (to take her seat) 1967-First radio pulsars detected by British postgraduate Jocelyn Bell Burnell and her supervisor Antony Hewish at Cambridge University

Nov 27, 2025

THURSDAY, Nov. 27, 2025

1095-Pope Urban II preaches to the West to wrest control of the Holy Land from the Seljuk Turks at the Council of Clermont, triggering the First Crusade 1295-English King Edward I calls what later becomes known as "The Model Parliament," extending the authority of its representatives 1493-Christopher Columbus returns to La Navidad colony, finding it destroyed by the first Native American uprising against Spanish rule. Taíno Cacique Caonabo led his people to attack the settlement after the brutal treatment they received from the garrison who disobeyed Columbus's orders. 1807-Portuguese Royal Family and its court of nearly 15,000 people leave Lisbon for their colony of Brazil to escape invading Napoleonic troops 1895-Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel establishes the Nobel Prizes through his will, dedicating the bulk of his fortune to funding annual awards for those who have conferred the "greatest benefit to humankind" 1965-15,000 to 25,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam in Washington, D.C.

Nov 26, 2025

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 26, 2025

43-BC Second Triumvirate alliance of Roman leaders formed by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony 1778-British explorer Captain James Cook is the first European to visit Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) 1789-First national Thanksgiving in the U.S. 1791-First U.S. cabinet meeting, held at George Washington's home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph attend. 1865-"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is published in America 1922-English archaeologist Howard Carter opens Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb in Egypt 1989-India's Congress Party led by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi loses the general election to an opposition front led by V. P. Singh 2021-WHO labels COVID-19 variant Omicron a "variant of concern", with its dozens of new mutations, after it emerges in Botswana and South Africa

Nov 25, 2025

TUESDAY, Nov. 25, 2025

1177-Battle of Montgisard: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem defeats Saladin and a larger Ayyubid force 1783-Britain evacuates New York City, its last military position in the United States 1839-Cyclone slams southeastern India with high winds and a 40-foot storm surge, destroying the city of Coringa. Storm waves sweep inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people. 1905-The first telegraph transmitter with a one-mile range is advertised in "Scientific American" for $8.50 1973-Bloodless military coup ousts Greek President George Papadopoulos 1986-Iran-Contra affair erupts as President Reagan reveals a secret arms deal 1990-Lech Wałęsa wins Poland's first popular election 1994-Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as CEO of the company

Nov 24, 2025

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