Portrait of Kim Young-sam

Birthday profile

Kim Young-sam

Kim Young-sam, South Korean soldier and politician, 7th President of South Korea (died 2015)

Born
December 20, 1927
Died
November 22, 2015
Zodiac sign
Sagittarius
Birth year
1927

About Kim Young-sam

Kim Young-sam (Korean: 김영삼; Hanja: 金泳三, pronounced [kim.jʌŋ.sam]; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015), also known by his initials YS, was a South Korean politician who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998. From 1961, Kim spent almost 30 years as one of the leaders of the South Korean opposition and one of the most powerful rivals to the authoritarian regimes of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. He was elected to the National Assembly at the age of 26, the youngest in Korean history, and served as a nine-term lawmaker, working as a leader with Kim Dae-jung and the democratic camp. His art name is Geosan (거산; 巨山) and his hometown is Gimnyeong (김녕; 金寧). Elected as president in the 1992 presidential election, Kim became the first civilian to hold the office in over 30 years. He was inaugurated on 25 February 1993, and served a single five-year term, presiding over a massive anti-corruption campaign, the arrest of his two predecessors, and an internationalization policy called Segyehwa. The final years of Kim's presidency saw him being widely blamed for the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge and the Sampoong Department Store and the downturn and recession of the South Korean economy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which forced South Korea to accept tens of billions of dollars in unpopular conditional loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This caused him to have one of the lowest approval ratings of any incumbent president in the history of South Korea at 6%, from a historical high of 97%, until Park Geun-hye surpassed Kim at 1–3% during the political scandal in 2016. After his death, he has seen a moderately positive reevaluation.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Kim Young-sam was born

Kim Young-sam was born in 1927. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1927

  • #1 song"My Blue Heaven" – Gene Austin
  • Top movieThe Jazz Singer (first talking picture)
  • Best-selling bookElmer Gantry – Sinclair Lewis

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBabe Ruth hits 60 home runs
  • Top headlineLindbergh completes first solo transatlantic flight
  • Technology milestoneThe Jazz Singer — first feature-length talking film
  • Defining fadDance marathons peak
  • Notable inventionPEZ candy dispensers
  • World population2.04 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population119.0M

1927 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Kim Young-sam's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19272026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,100$435,000
Average income$3,700$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population119.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.