February 11th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Nelson Mandela released from prison 1990

 

Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990.

In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid–South Africa’s institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.

In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela’s resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country’s first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa’s president.

Mandela retired from politics in 1999, but remained a global advocate for peace and social justice until his death in December 2013.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1776 Georgia’s governor escapes imprisonment

• Automotive

• 1937 GM signs first autoworkers contract

• Civil War

• 1861 Lincoln leaves Springfield

• Cold War

• 1956 Burgess and Maclean resurface

• Crime

• 1916 Birth control pioneer arrested

• Disaster

• 1952 Avalanches plague central Europe

• General Interest

• 1858 Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette
• 1945 Yalta Conference ends
• 1970 The world’s fourth space power

• Hollywood

• 2008 Tolkien heirs file Lord of the Rings lawsuit

• Literary

• 1778 Voltaire is welcomed home

• Music

• 1960 The Payola scandal heats up
• 2012 Pop superstar Whitney Houston dies at age 48

• Old West

• 1805 Sacagawea gives birth to Pompey

• Presidential

• 1945 FDR and daughter Anna leave Yalta Conference

• Sports

• 1990 Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson

• Vietnam War

• 1962 Farm Gate aircraft crashes

• World War I

• 1918 Russia’s General Kaledin commits suicide

• World War II

• 1942 The “Channel Dash”