Modern history of East Asian martial arts
Taekwondo was developed from karate for use in the Republic of Korea Armed Forces from 1954. For this purpose, karate terminology needed to be "nationalized". The name "taekwondo" is due to shotokan practitioner and army general Choi Hong Hi. After the Korean War, Taekwondo was further developed into a purely sportive discipline, since 1973 overseen by the World Taekwondo Federation. 
During 1964-1966, Choi Hong Hi continued to promote taekwondo, working to put together a world-class exhibition team. Taekwondo's emphasis on jumping and flying kicks dates to this period. While taekwondo was based off karate, the structural changes made in the 1950s and 1960s were significant, and it cannot now be considered a branch of karate, but is a standalone modern martial art. Taekwondo was presented at the Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport in 1988 and 1992, and became an official Olympic discipline in 2000.
Robert Howard (martial artist)
When Howard first became involved in martial arts, in the early 1960s, taekwondo was unheard of in Ireland. He therefore started his training in karate in 1966 in Gardiner Place, Dublin. After several years, a Korean instructor (Yung Wu Kwon, 3rd "dan") arrived at the club and began teaching them after he had moved to Ireland to look for work. Kwon was Howard's first introduction to the Korean martial art of taekwondo. Howard and his early classmates (Liam Dandy, Frank Matthews, and Paul Kavanagh) had never seen techniques like these before and were extremely impressed. Later, another Korean instructor (Chang Ho Cho, 5th "dan") started to teach and train in the hall. Cho graded Howard, Dandy and Matthews to red belt, but shortly afterwards he had to leave for the USA in search of work.