843-Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople
1502-Founder of the Safavid dynasty, Ismail I, is crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)
1966-Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out
1977-Hanafi Muslims hold 130 hostages in Washington, D.C.
1985-Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader
2011-9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and causing the second worst nuclear accident in history at Fukushima nuclear plant
2018-China's National People's Congress approves removal of term limits for a leader, allowing Xi Jinping to be president for life
2020-COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, after 121,564 cases worldwide and 4,373 deaths
Source: Korea Times News
