Opinion - The Korea Times

THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2009

Today is Thursday, January 1, the first day of 2009. There are 364 days left in the year. 4714 B.C. _ Origin of Julian Period (Year 0) 1 _ Origin of Christian Era 1701 _ Great Britain and Ireland union is in effect, creating United Kingdom 1776 _ General George Washington hoists Continental Union Flag 1863 _ Emancipation Proclamation (ending slavery) issued by Lincoln 1873 _ Origin of Japanese Era 1912 _ Sun Yat-sen forms Chinese Republic 1992 _ Europe breaks down trade barriers 1993 _ Czechoslovakia separates into Czech Republic (Bohemia) and Slovakia 1995 _ International Year of Tolerance

Dec 31, 2008

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2008

Today is Wednesday, December 31, the 366th day of 2008. There are no days left in the year. 1762 _ Mozart family moves from Vienna to Salzburg 1805 _ End of French Republican calendar; France returns to Gregorianism 1861 _ 22,990 mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in 1861, world record 1879 _ Edison gives first public demonstration of his incandescent lamp 1911 - Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize 1930 _ U.S. tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930 1945 _ Ratification of U.N. Charter completed 1946 _ President Truman officially proclaims end of WWII 1984 _ U.S. leaves UNESCO 1991 _ USSR, last day of existence

Dec 30, 2008

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2008

Today is Tuesday, December 30, the 365th day of 2008. There are one day left in the year. 1703 _ Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die 1813 _ Danzig surrenders to allied armies 1877 _ Johnannes Brahms' 2nd Symphony in D, premieres in Vienna 1911 _ Sun Yat-sen elected first President of Republic of China 1936 _ United Auto Workers stage first sit-down strike, at Fisher Body Plant 1950 _ Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia become independent states in French Union 1972 _ President Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks 1974 _ Beatles are legally disbanded (four years after suit was brought) 1987 _ Premier Mugabe elected President of Zimbabwe 1993 _ Vatican recognizes Israel

Dec 29, 2008

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2008

Today is Monday, December 29, the 364th day of 2008. There are two days left in the year. 1862 _ Bowling ball invented 1867 _ First telegraph ticker used by a brokerage house, Groesbeck & Company, New York 1891 _ Edison patents ``transmission of signals electrically" (radio) 1934 _ Japan renounces Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 & London Treaty of 1930 1967 _ Star Trek's ``The Trouble With Tribbles" first airs 1967 _ Turkish-Cypriot government forms in Cyprus 1983 _ U.S. announces withdrawal from UNESCO 1989 _ Vaclav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia 1989 _ Wayne Gretzky and Martina Navratilova are named athletes of the decade by the Associated Press 1997 _ Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu

Dec 28, 2008

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2008

Today is Saturday, December 27, the 362nd day of 2008. There are four days left in the year. 1825 _ First public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England 1831 _ Darwin begins his voyage to South America on board the HMS Beagle 1923 _ Unsuccessful attempt on prince-regent Hirohito of Japan 1927 _ Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky expelled 1934 _ Shah of Persia declares Persia now Iran 1942 _ First Japanese women camp (Ambarawa) goes into use 1945 _ International Monetary Fund established ― World Bank founded 1970 _ ``Hello, Dolly!" closes at St. James Theater NYC after 2,844 performances 1972 _ New North Korean constitution comes into effect 1978 _ King Juan Carlos ratifies Spain's first democratic constitution

Dec 26, 2008

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2008

Today is Friday, December 26, the 361st day of 2008. There are five days left in the year. 1831 _ Vincenzo Bellini's opera ``Norma" premieres in Milan 1932 _ Earthquake kills 70,000 in Kansu China 1933 _ U.S. forswears armed intervention in the Western Hemisphere 1934 _ Yomiuri Giants, Japan's first professional baseball team forms 1941 _ Winston Churchill becomes first British P.M. to address a joint meeting of Congress, warning that the Axis would ``stop at nothing" 1944 _ Budapest surrounded by soviet army 1944 _ Tennessee Williams' play ``Glass Menagerie" premieres in Chicago 1963 _ Beatles release ``I Want To Hold Your Hand"/ ``I Saw Her Standing There" 1978 _ India's former P.M., Indira Gandhi, released from jail 1982 _ TIME's Man of the Year is a computer

Dec 25, 2008

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2008

Today is Thursday, December 25, the 360th day of 2008. There are six days left in the year. 0001 _ First Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysus Exiguus 0337 _ Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on Dec. 25th 0352 _ First definite date Christmas was celebrated on Dec. 25th 1066 _ William the Conqueror, crowned king of England 1868 _ Despite bitter opposition, President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion (the Civil War) 1926 _ Hirohito becomes emperor of Japan (1926-1989) 1971 _ Worst hotel fire in history kills 163 at Daeyeongak Hotel in Seoul 1977 _ Israeli P.M. Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with Egyptian President Sadat 1990 _ ``Godfather III" premieres 1991 _ Mikhail Gorbachev formally resigned as President of USSR

Dec 24, 2008

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2008

Today is Wednesday, December 24, the 359th day of 2008. There are seven days left in the year. 1799 _ Jacobins plot against Napoleon uncovered 1818 _ ``Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; sung for first time the next day 1865 _ Several Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski TN 1870 _ Giusseppe Verdi's ``Aida" premieres at Cairo Opera, one year after the opening of the Suez Canal, for which it was commissioned 1893 _ Henry Ford completes his first useful gas motor 1920 _ Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (New York, N.Y.) 1936 _ First radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, Calif. 1948 _ First U.S. house completely sun-heated is occupied (Dover, Mass.) 1954 _ Laos gains its independence 1963 _ Greek and Turks riot in Cyprus

Dec 23, 2008

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2008

Today is Tuesday, December 23, the 358th day of 2008. There are eight days left in the year. 1620 _ French Huguenots declare war on King Louis XIII 1867 _ First self-made millionairess (Sarah Breedlove-hair straightener) 1888 _ Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear 1919 _ Alice H. Parker patents gas heating furnace 1941 _ Japan begins assault on Rangoon Burma 1960 _ King Saud of Saudi-Arabia takes power 1962 _ Cuba starts returning U.S. prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion 1968 _ 82 members of U.S. intelligence ship ``Pueblo" released by North Korea 1970 _ New York World Trade Center reaches highest point (411 m) 1983 _ Journal Science publishes first report on nuclear winter

Dec 22, 2008

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2008

Today is Monday, December 22, the 357th day of 2008. There are nine days left in the year. 1783 _ Washington resigns his military commission as U.S. Army's commander-in-chief 1882 _ First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison 1917 _ Flanders declares its independence, under Pieter Tack 1941 _ Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington D.C. for a wartime conference 1941 _ Japan's invasion leader lands on Luzon, Philippines 1963 _ Official 30-day mourning period for President John F. Kennedy ends 1965 _ Director David Lean's ``Dr. Zhivago" premieres 1976 _ 35 Unification church couples wed in New York City 1984 _ Madonna's ``Like a Virgin" single goes No. 1 for 6 weeks 1990 _ Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president

Dec 21, 2008

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