In 1994 Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President of South Africa.

When the Nationalist Party gained power in 1948 laws against the rights of the majority black population, which began in 1913 (just three years after their independence) became rigidly enforced. The black majority were severely repressed and ill treated by the white minority government under legislation known as apartheid laws. Nelson Mandela was a young black student when he first became involved in protests against the apartheid and he continued his studies in law, hoping to one day free black South Africans from the injustice that they faced daily. He helped form the African National Congress Youth League in 1944. The African National Congress (ANC) which was a group campaigning for equal rights for black and white people in South Africa. In 1948 the South African Government passed new laws which separated black people from white people and this was known as ‘apartheid’. He was an admirer of Ghandi and peaceful protest, but after continued abuse of black Africans, including the massacre of un-armed black protestors, he changed tactics. Mandela became the leader of an army called ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’ meaning 'Spear of the Nation' which was actively involved in sabotage. Mandela was arrested on the 5th of August 1962 and sentenced to 5 years. On the 12th June 1964 Mandela (while in prison) Mandela was on trial once again for a cash of weapons found in a Umkhonto we Sizwe hide out. He and his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for treason and sabotage (rather than the death penalty that the prosecution wanted).  Several conditional offers of release were made to Mandela by the South African Government but these were against Mandela’s beliefs and so he refused. On the 11^th of February 1990 Mandela was released from prison (after 27 years) and on the 18^th of March 1992 white South Africans voted to end the apartheid. Finally on the 27^th of April 1994 South Africa held its first universal suffrage elections allowing the black majority to vote. The elections saw 19.7 million of the 22.7 million eligible voters participate and the African National Congress (ANC) headed by Nelson Mandela won with 62.65% of the votes (more than 40% above their closest competitor ‘The National Party’ who received 20.39%). On this day Nelson Mandela became the first President of South Africa to be elected in universal suffrage elections.

In 1940 First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

In September 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler at his Mountain top retreat. Hitler said he would invade Czechoslovakia unless Britain supported his plans to take Sudetenland (an area of Czechoslovakia around its border with Germany and full of German loyalists). Chamberlain discussed the situation with French leader, Edouard Daladier, and they met with Hitler on the 29^th of September 1938 to sign the Munich Agreement. This Agreement said that Britain and France would support Germany’s take over of Sudetenland on the understanding that Germany makes no more attempts of expanding its borders. Chamberlain claimed that the move would promote “peace in our time” but once Hitler was given Sudetenland he continued on to take the whole of Czechoslovakia and would continue to take many more European countries. On this day in 1940 Chamberlain lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons and subsequently resigned. His replacement was Winston Churchill, who took over at a time when many European Nations had been forced to surrender (including the other “Allied Nations”, France and Poland) and Britain stood alone in Europe against the Axis powers (Germany, Russia, Italy and Japan (Japan joined a few months later on the 27^th of September 1940) with only commonwealth members (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Newfoundland and South Africa) giving military support. Continued ....