Today in Korean history

April 28

1926 -- Song Hak-seon, a Korean fighter for independence from Japanese colonial rule, makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Makoto Saito, the Japanese governor general in Korea.

1960 -- Lee Ki-boong, who stepped down as vice president after the April 19 student revolution for democracy, commits suicide with his family at the presidential residence in Seoul.

1986 -- Two student activists at Seoul National University, Kim Se-jin and Lee Je-ho, burn themselves to death as part of an antiwar, anti-nuclear protest.

1995 -- A massive gas explosion during morning rush hour at a subway station construction site in Daegu, 302 kilometers southeast of Seoul, kills more than 100 people.

1997 -- Park Suk-tae, a former executive of Korea First Bank, commits suicide at his home in Seoul. Park had testified on April 17 of that year at a parliamentary hearing on a corruption scandal involving the South Korean conglomerate Hanbo Group. Many creditor banks in the country were suspected of having provided loans to the conglomerate in exchange for kickbacks.

2002 -- A reunion of separated family members from North and South Korea is held at the Mount Geumgang resort in the North.

2008 -- South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon returns home after her historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the Earth. Her mission to the ISS made South Korea the 36th country to send a astronaut into space. She became the 49th woman to reach orbit and the 158th person to visit the ISS.

2021 -- Heirs of late Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee announce that they would pay more than 12 trillion won in inheritance taxes, the largest-ever in the country's history.
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