Several researchers have discussed which element is preferably chosen as a vehicle in metonymic constructions Langacker (1993) claims that, all other things being equal, these cognitive principles govern the choice of metonymic vehicle: human over non-human, whole over part, concrete over abstract, visible over non-visible. This claim has been made, but no previous case studies regarding these principles have been conducted. To remedy this gap, this paper examines 510 instances of PART FOR WHOLE metonymy in the names of events and accidents in Korean newspapers from 2010 through 2019. The result shows that AGENT is most frequently utilized to refer to whole events, supporting one principle of Langacker, human over nonhuman. CAUSE, PATIENT, and PLACE follows AGENT. INSTRUMENT is not very frequently used unless it achieves its salience through contexts. TIME is observed only once. Considering that TIME was used frequently to name past events, as in the 4.19 Revolution, 5.18 Democratic Movement, the 4.3 Events, the infrequent use of TIME reflects a cultural change in its cognitive salience.