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Apartheid begins after the 1948 general election.
Hoping to get votes from the white Africans, the National Party promises to make laws severely restricting black rights if they win the general election. The National Party defeats the United Party and apartheid begins. -
Sixty-nine people are killed in the Sharpeville Massacre.
Apartheid requires blacks to carry passbooks, which contain personal information such as name, date of birth, and photos. When protestors show up at the Sharpeville police station without their passbooks, a riot breaks out and police kill 69 people. -
Another protest
People began to shoot each other, to create peace. -
Nelson Mandela is released from prison.
After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. Mandela thanks President de Klerk for helping set him free, but says that there is more work to be done to end apartheid. -
Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa.
In the country's first election that allowed both whites and blacks to vote, Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. He is the first black president in the history of South Africa.
