1675 Haiku became a very popular poetry form in Japan.
1851 King Mongkut of Thailand, the first Thai ruler to speak English, started his country down the path toward modernization. You may remember him as Yul Brynner in the movie "The King and I."
1868 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Thailand, Mongkut's son, followed in his father's footsteps, abolishing slavery and keeping Thailand out of the grips of Western colonialism.
1868 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar in northwest India. He was truly Mahatma, which means Great Soul.
1910 One of the greatest movie directors in world cinematic history, Kurosawa Akira, was born in Japan. In 1954, Seven Samurai hit the theaters (one of my favorite movies of all time).
1913 Rabindranath Tagore of India received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1930 Chandrasekhara V. Raman of India received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Post WWII Burma, Malaya and Singapore gained independence from Britain. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam gained independence from France. Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch.
1949 Yukawa Hideki of Japan received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1953 Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reached the summit of Mt. Everest along with Edmund Hillary. The two became the first to conquer the mountain.
1964 Tokyo, Japan hosted the Summer Olympic Games.
1964 Tomonaga Sin-itiro of Japan received a Nobel Prize for Physics.
1968 Kawabata Yasunari of Japan received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1970 Expo 70, The World Exhibition, was held in Osaka, Japan.
1972 Leo Esaki of Japan received a Nobel Prize for Physics.
1972 Sapporo, Japan hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
1972 Sato Eisaku of Japan received a Nobel Peace Prize.
1973 Le Duc Tho of North Korea received a Nobel Peace Prize.
1973 A Japanese woman, Mrs. Junko Tabei, became the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, and only the 36th person to ever do so.
1979 Abdus Salam of Pakistan received a Nobel Prize for Physics.
1979 Fukui Kenichi of Japan received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1979 Mother Teresa of India received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1987 Susumu Tonegawa of Japan received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1987 The Dalai Lama, exiled from Tibet, received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1988 Seoul, South Korea hosted the Summer Olympic Games.
1991 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma received the Nobel Peace Prize.
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