Republic of Korea, 1960 — popular revolt
Event Summary
In April 1960, mass student-led protests known as the April Revolution forced South Korea's authoritarian president Syngman Rhee to resign, ending the First Republic. Rhee, in power since 1948, had grown increasingly repressive, and the March 15, 1960 elections were blatantly rigged to secure the vice presidency for his ally Lee Ki-poong. Protests erupted in the port city of Masan, and the discovery in early April of the body of a student killed by police tear gas ignited nationwide outrage.
On April 19, huge demonstrations in Seoul were met with police gunfire that killed scores; over the two weeks of protest about 186 people died. When the army declined to fire on the crowds and the United States pressed for reform, Rhee announced his resignation on April 26. He soon went into exile in Hawaii, where he died in 1965.
An interim government drafted a new constitution and held fresh elections, inaugurating the short-lived Second Republic.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
73204271960
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (forced to resign by popular revolt, exiled to Hawaii).
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; exiled. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →