1961 -- South Korea establishes diplomatic relations with Gabon.

1965 -- South Korea's parliament ratifies the normalization agreement signed between Seoul and Tokyo. Under the treaty, South Korea received grants and loans in return for abandoning its demand for compensation for Japan's colonization of Korea between 1910 and 1945. But critics said the agreement did not provide adequate compensation for South Koreans forcibly taken to Japan to serve as Japanese soldiers during World War II.

2005 -- The national football squads of the two Koreas hold a friendly match in Seoul as part of events to celebrate Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule.

2009 -- Former Samsung chairman and South Korea's richest man, Lee Kun-hee, is sentenced to a suspended three-year prison term and a 110 billion-won fine for illegal bond transactions. He is found guilty of tax evasion and breach of trust.

2010 -- South Korean slugger Lee Dae-ho homers in his ninth straight game for his Korea Baseball Organization club Lotte Giants, becoming the first baseball player in any professional league to go deep in nine games in a row.

2013 -- South and North Korea agree to reopen their troubled joint factory park in the North's border city of Kaesong, after Pyongyang promises not to shut it down again "under any circumstances." The two Koreas also pledge to host foreign investors at the Kaesong industrial park. The zone had been idle for four months.

2014 -- Pope Francis calls for fresh efforts to build peace on the divided Korean Peninsula on the first day of his visit to South Korea. His remarks came soon after North Korea fired five short-range rockets into the East Sea in an apparent attempt to dampen the festive mood in South Korea over the pope's trip, highlighting tensions on the peninsula divided by the 1950-53 Korean War.

2015 -- Lee Maeng-hee, the older brother of Lee Kun-hee, the head of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, dies at the age of 84.

Source: Yonhap News Agency