Today in History

July 18, 1918
Illustrious Son
Former South African president and activist Nelson Mandela is born on this day in 1918, the son of a Thembu chief. Mandela becomes a leader of the African National Congress (ANC), which sought to overthrow South Africa's brutal apartheid government, a system of legalized racial oppression. By the time he is imprisoned in 1962, Mandela has helped organize the ANC into small, grass-roots units of resistance. Due to worldwide pressure on the South African government, he is released from prison in 1990. He receives the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 for his negotiations with the government to end apartheid. In 1994, he wins the presidency after the country holds its first multiracial elections.



Today's Feature History Article

Aerial View of the coast, Cape Peninsula, South Africa

Inside Cape Town

Tourists are flocking to the city, but a former resident explains how the legacy of apartheid lingers




 



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