Today in History - February 11, Mandela released from prison

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Today is Wednesday February 10, 2015 the 42st day and 7th week of 2015, there are 323 days and 45 weeks left in the year.  Highlights of world history on this day
1990 Nelson Mandela re?leased from prison
Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South Afri?can apartheid, was released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990.
In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Con?gress (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 re?sistance to apartheid--South Af?rica?s institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black dem?onstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a para?military branch of the ANC to en?gage 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 sev?eral other ANC leaders and sen?tenced 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 labour in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once ev?ery six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela?s resolve remained un?broken, 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 an?other location, where he lived un?der 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 establish?ment of a multiracial govern?ment.

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Source: http://www.ereporter.com.ng/index.php/world-news/item/3163-today-in-history-february-11-2015-mandela-released-from-prison