Today in Korean history

May 1

1923 -- The first Children's Day is celebrated in Seoul. Bang Jung-hwan, a children's author who was devoted to children's issues, was the first person to come up with the idea of Children's Day. The South Korean government later changed the date to May 5.

1948 -- The South Korean transitional government introduces the three-trial system involving the use of the District Court, High Court and Supreme Court.

1949 -- The results of the first South Korean census are released, recording a population of 20,166,758 people in South Korea.

1964 -- South Korea holds a ceremony to mark the country's first "Law Day."

1981 -- The South Korean government announces its plan to introduce an educational tax in 1982.

1987 -- The opposition Reunification Democratic Party, led by Kim Young-sam, is inaugurated with calls for a direct presidential election and a "civilian government."

1993 -- The South Korean government permits a ceremony to mark Labor Day. The event had been banned for the previous 35 years.

1998 -- Lee Nam-yi, a former Korean sex slave to the Japanese Army during World War II who had been living in Cambodia since the war, visits South Korea. Known in South Korea as "Grandmother Hun," she later returned to Cambodia and died there in 2001.

2002 -- A group of 466 South Koreans and their 100 North Korean relatives get together in two rounds of meetings at the North's scenic resort of Mount Kumkang on the first day of a three-day inter-Korean family reunion.

2005 -- North Korea fires a short-range missile into the East Sea amid an international dispute over the North's nuclear weapons program.

2006 -- South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon urges Tokyo to look at the "historic root" of the issue of the Dokdo islets, referring to Japan's colonial control of the Korean Peninsula in the early part of the 20th century.

2009 -- South Korea says it will increase its assistance to developing countries worldwide by 16.4 percent to 1.09 trillion won.

2014 -- K-pop sensation Psy is officially included in the Encyclopedia Britannica as the "South Korean singer and rapper" who "achieved international fame" with the humorous music video to his song "Gangnam Style."

2018 -- South Korea's defense ministry begins taking down loudspeakers installed along the border with North Korea to follow up on their summit deal.

2019 -- Mireuk Temple, South Korea's oldest and largest existing stone pagoda in the southwestern provincial city of Iksan, is disclosed to the public after two decades of restoration work, providing a glimpse into the flourishing Buddhist culture of the ancient kingdom of Baekje.
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