Apartheid Timeline

By Kyle479

  • Founding of the ANC

    The African National Congress (ANC) is South Africa's governing political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994.

  • Congress Youth League founded

    The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) is the youth wing of the African National Congress.

  • Defiance Campaign

    The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress (ANC) at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in December 1951.[1]
    The ANC decided to implement a national action the following year based on non-cooperation with certain laws considered unjust and discriminatory.

  • Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Peace Prize

    Albert John Lutuli (commonly spelled Luthuli;[1] c. 1898 – 21 July 1967), also known by his Zulu name Mvumbi, was a South African teacher and politician. Lutuli was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time an umbrella organisation that led opposition to the white minority government in South Africa. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid. He was the first African, and the first person from outside Europe a

  • Sharpeville Massacre

    The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal (today part of Gauteng). After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 people.

  • Spear of the Nation formed

    Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) which fought against the South African apartheid government

  • Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison

    Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he remained for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison.[55] While in jail, his reputation grew and he became widely known as the most significant black leader in South Africa.[1] On the island, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry.

  • The Soweto Uprising

    The Soweto Uprising, also known as June 16, was a series of high school student-led protests in South Africa that began on the morning of June 16, 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto,An estimated 20 000 students took part in the protests, and roughly 176 people were killed.

  • Steve Biko dies in police custody

    On the 18th of August, 1977, Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 and interrogated by officers of the Port Elizabeth security police including Harold Snyman and Gideon Nieuwoudt. This interrogation took place in the Police Room 619. The interrogation lasted twenty-two hours and included torture and beatings resulting in a coma.[7] He suffered a major head injury while in police custody, and was chained to a window grille for a day.

  • Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize

    Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).

  • Nelson Mandela released from prison

    Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918)[1] served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC).

  • Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa

    outh Africa's first multi-racial elections in which full enfranchisement was granted were held on 27 April 1994. The ANC won 62% of the votes in the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated on 10 May 1994 as the country's first black President, with the National Party's de Klerk as his first deputy and Thabo Mbeki as the second in the Government of National Unity.[82] As President from May 1994 until June 1999, Mandela presided over the transition from minority rule and apart