Author: Redactor

On Feb. 11, 1990, after 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released by South African authorities. Mandela had joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944, becoming deputy national president of the group in 1952. In 1961, Mandela was arrested for treason, and, although acquitted, was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage, convicted and sentenced to life in prison along with several other ANC leaders.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and began dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in negotiating an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won the country’s first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa’s president.

On Feb. 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, setting the process for presidential succession, was ratified by Nevada, the necessary 38th state to do so.

On Feb. 9, 1737, Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England. Paine would come to America in 1774 and by 1776 publish “Common Sense,” urging American independence. The pamphlet sold more copies than any book save the Bible.

Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote the Rights of Man in 1791, a defense of the French Revolution. Despite not speaking French, he was elected to the French National Convention in 1792. But in December of 1793, Paine was arrested and imprisoned in Paris – then released in 1794.

Paine returned to America in 1802, after becoming notorious due to publication of The Age of Reason, his book advocating deism, reason and freethinking, against institutionalized religion and Christian doctrines. When he died in 1809, he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity.

On February 8, 1865, Delaware voters rejected the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, voting to continue the practice of slavery. Delaware belatedly and symbolically ratified the amendment on February 12, 1901.