Nelson Mandela Timeline

Nelson Mandela 47

1936 – 2021 Frederik Willem de Klerk (1936-2021) Died 11 November 2021, aged 85 South African president who released Nelson Mandela and dismantled apartheid, sharing the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with him.
1936 – 2018 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (1936-2018) Died 2 April 2018, aged 81 South African anti-apartheid activist and former wife of Nelson Mandela, who campaigned for his release during his 27 years of imprisonment. She remained a prominent, and at times controversial, political figure in post-apartheid South Africa. She served as a member of parliament and within the African National Congress leadership.
1939 Mandela enters Fort Hare University One of very few Black students in higher education He was expelled the following year for joining a student boycott of the governing council.
1941 Mandela runs away to Johannesburg Escaping a marriage arranged by his guardian He worked as a night watchman at a mine, then as a clerk in a law firm.
1943 Mandela joins the African National Congress While studying law at Witwatersrand He was one of a handful of Black students, and met Tambo, Sisulu and the lawyers who shaped him.
1944 The ANC Youth League is founded Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo and Lembede They pushed the older leadership from petitions toward boycotts, strikes and defiance.
1952 The Defiance Campaign Deliberately breaking apartheid laws, in public, to fill the jails Mandela was volunteer-in-chief. ANC membership went from 20,000 to 100,000 in a year.
1952 Mandela and Tambo open South Africa's first Black law firm In central Johannesburg, against official obstruction They were ordered out of the city centre under the Group Areas Act and carried on anyway.
1955 The Freedom Charter is adopted At the Congress of the People in Kliptown South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. It became the ANC's founding text.
1956 – 1961 The Treason Trial begins 156 arrested, Mandela among them It ran for four and a half years and ended in acquittal for every defendant.
1958 Mandela marries Winnie Madikizela A social worker 16 years his junior She carried his politics for 27 years while he was in prison, and paid for it.
1960 Sharpeville Massacre Police kill 69 anti-pass-law protesters in South Africa South African police open fire on demonstrators protesting the pass laws in Sharpeville, killing 69 people and wounding many more. The massacre draws international condemnation and accelerates the global anti-apartheid movement.
1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe is founded The armed wing of the ANC, with Mandela as commander After Sharpeville he argued that non-violence had been met with violence and had failed.
1962 Mandela leaves South Africa in secret Military training in Algeria, fundraising across Africa and in London He returned in July. He was arrested three weeks later.
1962 Nelson Mandela is arrested Beginning of nearly three decades of imprisonment Nelson Mandela was arrested near Howick, South Africa on August 5, 1962, after living underground while organizing resistance to apartheid. He was initially charged with incitement and leaving the country without a passport. The arrest marked the start of 27 years of imprisonment that made him a global symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle.
1963 The Rivonia Trial opens Ten accused of sabotage, facing the death penalty The state's evidence came from a raid on Liliesleaf Farm, where the plans were kept.
1964 I am prepared to die Mandela's statement from the dock, three hours long An ideal for which I hope to live and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
1964 Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment Rivonia Trial verdict in Pretoria Mandela and seven co-defendants were convicted of sabotage against the apartheid state and sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial made Mandela an internationally recognised symbol of resistance to apartheid, though he would not be released for another 26 years.
1964 – 1982 Mandela arrives on Robben Island Prisoner 466/64, in a cell seven feet square Hard labour in the lime quarry damaged his eyes permanently. He studied and taught for eighteen years.
1976 Soweto uprising Police kill student protesters in South African township On 16 June 1976 police opened fire on thousands of black schoolchildren in Soweto who were protesting the compulsory use of Afrikaans in schools, killing hundreds over the following months of unrest. The uprising drew international condemnation of apartheid and galvanised the anti-apartheid movement. The date is commemorated annually in South Africa as Youth Day.
1982 Mandela is moved to Pollsmoor Prison Off the island after eighteen years A better cell, and the beginning of quiet contact with the government.
1985 Nelson Mandela rejects conditional release Imprisoned ANC leader refuses to renounce armed struggle South African President P. W. Botha offered to release imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela on 31 January 1985 if he renounced violence as a political tool. Mandela refused the condition, and his daughter Zindzi read his defiant response to a rally in Soweto. The episode strengthened his standing as a symbol of resistance to apartheid.
1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act US Congress imposes sanctions on South Africa The United States Congress overrode President Reagan's veto to enact sweeping economic sanctions against South Africa's apartheid government. The act banned new investment and imposed trade restrictions, pressuring Pretoria over its treatment of the Black majority. It marked a rare foreign-policy defeat for Reagan in Congress.
1988 The Mandela birthday concert London, England A tribute concert for the imprisoned Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday was broadcast to 67 countries, and is often credited with pushing anti-apartheid politics into the mainstream.
1988 Mandela is moved to Victor Verster Prison A warder's house with a swimming pool Negotiations were under way. He was learning to use a telephone again after 26 years.
1989 F. W. de Klerk becomes South African president New leader signals the beginning of the end of apartheid F. W. de Klerk was sworn in as State President of South Africa after P. W. Botha's resignation. He would go on to legalize the African National Congress and release Nelson Mandela from prison the following year. His reforms led to the negotiated end of apartheid.
1990 De Klerk unbans ANC South Africa lifts apartheid restrictions South African President F.W. de Klerk announced on February 2, 1990 that the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations would be legalised, paving the way for the end of apartheid.
1990 Nelson Mandela freed After 27 years in prison Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison on February 11, 1990 after 27 years of imprisonment, greeted by jubilant crowds worldwide. His release marked the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa.
1991 South Africa Repeals Core Apartheid Laws Population Registration Act and land laws abolished South Africa's parliament repealed the Population Registration Act and other foundational apartheid legislation that had classified citizens by race and restricted land ownership. The repeal followed years of negotiation between the government of F.W. de Klerk and anti-apartheid leaders. It cleared the way for negotiations toward a democratic, multiracial constitution.
1991 Mandela is elected president of the ANC Succeeding his old law partner Oliver Tambo He now led the negotiations he had started alone from a prison cell.
1993 Mandela and de Klerk awarded Nobel Peace Prize Joint honor for negotiating South Africa's transition from apartheid Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work ending apartheid and negotiating a peaceful transition to multiracial democracy. The award came months before South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994. Both men had led rival sides through years of negotiation despite ongoing political violence.
1994 Nelson Mandela elected Nelson Mandela elected Nelson Mandela was elected president on 27 April 1994 in South Africa's first election with universal suffrage, four years after his release from twenty-seven years in prison. Voters queued for hours in lines kilometres long. His government set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission rather than pursue prosecutions.
1994 Mandela is inaugurated as president At the Union Buildings in Pretoria, before 4,000 guests Never, never and never again shall this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another.
1995 South Africa wins Rugby World Cup Springboks triumph as Mandela dons the number six jersey South Africa's Springboks defeated New Zealand in the final of the Rugby World Cup, hosted in the country a year after the end of apartheid. President Nelson Mandela presented the trophy wearing a Springbok jersey, an image widely seen as a symbol of national reconciliation. The tournament is credited with helping unite a divided country.
1995 – 1998 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is established Chaired by Desmond Tutu Amnesty in exchange for the full truth. Around 7,000 people applied and most were refused.
1996 Mandela and Winnie divorce After a separation announced in 1992 He said he had been the loneliest man during the marriage, and gave her no financial settlement.
1996 The new South African constitution is signed At Sharpeville, on Human Rights Day One of the most liberal in the world, with a bill of rights and an independent court.
1998 Mandela marries Graça Machel On his eightieth birthday The widow of the president of Mozambique, and the only woman to have been first lady of two countries.
1999 Mandela steps down after one term Declining to stand again at 80 In a continent of presidents for life, the decision mattered as much as anything he did in office.
1999 Thabo Mbeki Succeeds Nelson Mandela as South African President Peaceful transition after ANC election victory Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated as President of South Africa on June 16, 1999, succeeding Nelson Mandela after the African National Congress won a decisive election victory. The transition marked South Africa's first change of leadership under full democracy. Mbeki continued the post-apartheid reconstruction program while shifting focus toward economic policy.
2003 The 46664 campaign HIV/AIDS awareness, named after his prison number He had been criticised for saying too little about AIDS while in office.
2005 Mandela announces his son died of AIDS Makgatho Mandela, aged 54 He said publicly that the way to end the stigma was to say the word out loud.
2007 The Elders are founded Mandela brings together former leaders to work on conflicts Tutu, Annan, Carter, Robinson and Brundtland among them, answerable to nobody.
2010 Mandela's last public appearance A lap of the pitch before the World Cup final in Johannesburg Aged 91, days after a great-granddaughter was killed on the way home from the opening concert.
2013 Nelson Mandela hospitalised Final illness of South African icon Nelson Mandela was hospitalised in Pretoria on June 8, 2013, with a recurring lung infection. He died on December 5, 2013, aged 95.
2013 Nelson Mandela dies Aged 95, at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg Ninety-one heads of state attended the memorial, the largest such gathering in modern history.
2013 Nelson Mandela dies Father of the Rainbow Nation, age 95 Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013, aged 95, at his home in Johannesburg. The first democratically elected president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was mourned worldwide.