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Apartheid put into action by National Party
Although many of the segregationist policies dated back to the early decades of the twentieth century, it was the election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 that marked the beginning of legalized racism's harshest features called Apartheid. -
Mixed Marriages Act
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No. 55 of 1949, was an apartheid-era law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "whites" and "non-whites". -
Population Registration Act
required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics as part of the system of apartheid. -
Sharpeville Massacre
at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in South Africa. After demonstrating against anti-black laws, a crowd of about 7,000 black protesters went to the police station. Sources disagree as to the behaviour of the crowd: the crowd was peaceful, or the crowd had been hurling stones at the police. The SAP opened fire on the crowd when the crowd started coming toward the fence; tear-gas had proved ineffectual. There were 249 victims in total. -
Rivonia Trial
took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place in Pretoria at the Palace of Justice and the Old Synagogue and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. Many were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life. -
Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is Assassinated
Verwoerd was assassinated in Cape Town, shortly after entering the House of Assembly at 14:15. A uniformed parliamentary messenger named Dimitri Tsafendas stabbed Verwoerd in the neck and chest four times before being subdued by other members of the Assembly. -
Bantu Homeland Citizenship Act
ruled that all Blacks would assume the nationality of one of the homelands, even if they had never set foot in it -
Township uprising
a period of popular revolt in black townships in apartheid South Africa, beginning in the Vaal Triangle on 3 September 1984. -
Nelson Mandela released from prison
He was released unconditionally on 11 February 1990, after spending 27 years in prison. This release happened after the Apartheid government had previously offered him conditional freedom in 1985. -
Nelson Mandela becomes president
Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist, leader of uMkhonto we Sizwe, lawyer, and former political prisoner, was inaugurated as President of South Africa