Today in Korean history

Feb. 18

1909 -- The Korean Empire, the successor of the Joseon Dynasty lasting from 1897 to 1910, announces national tax collection laws. Regional tax laws were formed three years earlier, yielding part of the tax income to local municipalities.

1910 -- The first commercial movie theater opens in Seoul.

1952 -- North Korean prisoners of war being held at a jail on Geoje Island, off South Korea's southern coast, start a revolt. About 100 were killed during the conflict, while anti-communist inmates and the rest were set free in 1953, when the Korean War ended with an armistice.

1986 -- The first shipment of South Korean cars, consisting of 1,000 units of the Pony model, a compact vehicle produced by Hyundai Motor, arrives in the United States.

1992 - South and North Korea hold their sixth meeting of high-level officials in Pyongyang.

2003 -- A fire engulfs a subway station in the southeastern city of Daegu, killing 197 people and injuring hundreds. The blaze was started early in the morning by a mentally disturbed man in his 50s who intended to kill others, as well as himself. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

2014 -- Ten people are killed and more than 100 others injured after the roof of a hotel gymnasium packed with students collapses in the southern city of Gyeongju.

2018 -- Speed skating sprinter Lee Sang-hwa, the defending Olympic champion, grabs silver in the women's 500-meter race at the PyeongChang Winter Games.

2020 -- South Korea confirms its 31st case of the novel coronavirus in a 61-year-old woman living in Daegu. The woman, a member of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, triggered the first mass outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, with more than 6,000 patients in Daegu alone by March 15. The same day, the country reported 8,162 total cases, of which members of the minor religious sect accounted for 61.3 percent.
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