Today in Korean history

May 29

1957 -- Lee Hyo-chung becomes the first South Korean nurse to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest honor awarded to those distinguished in the nursing profession. The medal was instituted in 1912 by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

1960 -- Rhee Syng-man, who resigned as South Korea's first president in April, goes into exile in Hawaii.

1968 -- Archbishop Stephen Kim Sou-hwan is appointed as head of Seoul's Catholic Archdiocese.

1972 -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization discovers the "Jikjisimgyeong," the world's oldest text printed with metal type, which was made in Korea in 1377, at a museum in Paris.

1974 -- North Korea joins the Universal Postal Union, the specialized agency of the United Nations for the postal sector.

1979 -- Ko Sang-don, the first South Korean to reach the summit of Mount Everest, dies in an accident while climbing Mount McKinley in Alaska.

1984 -- The Promotion Council for Democracy, a nongovernmental political group, selects then opposition politicians Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam as its leaders. Because Kim Dae-jung was overseas, another politician, Kim Sang-hyun, was later appointed as the acting co-head of the group.

1988 -- Lawyers for a Democratic Society, called Minbyun in Korean, is established.

1998 -- Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan resigns as head of the Catholic Seoul Archdiocese.

2000 -- President Kim Dae-jung holds a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in Seoul.

2003 -- The South Korean government reduces the mandatory military service period for South Korean men by two months to a total of two years. It also reduced the training period for reservists to one year.

2009 -- The funeral of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun takes place. The state-arranged funeral service is held after a seven-day mourning period.

2015 -- Rival parties approve a bill to reform the deficit-ridden pension system for civil servants as the country struggles to support its fast-aging population.

2018 -- The two Koreas exchange lists specifying the members of their delegations to high-level talks that will follow up on the April agreement on peace and reconciliation between their leaders.

2019 -- A sightseeing vessel on the Danube river in Budapest, Hungary, sinks after colliding with a river cruise ship, leaving 25 South Korean passengers and two Hungarian crew members dead.

2022 -- South Koreans Park Chan-wook and Song Kang-ho are named best director and best actor, respectively, at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time in the country's cinema history that Korean films have taken home two titles at a time at the festival.
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