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Apartheid put into action by National Party
The National Party won the election by promising to severely restrict the rights of Black South Africans. Once in power, the National Party enacted a series of racial laws and regulations called apartheid. -
Mixed Marriages Act
Prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races. The law was part of the apartheid government's policy of separateness. -
Population Registration Act
A South African law that required all citizens to be classified and registered by race. The act was repealed in 1991, but the racial categories it established are still ingrained in South African culture. -
Sharpeville Massacre
Police officers in a Black township in South Africa opened fire on a group of people peacefully protesting oppressive laws. Sixty‐nine protestors were killed. -
Rivonia Trial
Took place after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. Counsel for the accused successfully challenged the legal sufficiency of the document. -
Prime Minister Hendrik Verwood is Assassinated
Verwoerd was stabbed several times by parliamentary aide Dimitri Tsafendas. He was stabbed in the parliamentary chamber. -
Bantu Homeland Citizenship Act
Defined Blacks living throughout South Africa as legal citizens of the homelands designated for their particular ethnic groups, stripping them of their South African citizenship and their few remaining civil and political rights. -
Township Uprising
The Tricameral Parliament opened in Cape Town while protest demonstrations began in the Transvaal, marking the start of the longest and most widespread period of black resistance to white rule. -
Nelson Mandela Released from prison
Nelson Mandela was released from from after 27 years. Amid growing domestic and international pressure and fears of racial civil war, he was released by President F. W. de Klerk. -
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.