May 10, 1994 : NELSON MANDELA INAUGURATED:

In South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sworn in as the first
black president of South Africa. In his inaugural address, Mandela,
who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner of the South
African government, declared that "the time for the healing of the
wounds has come." Two weeks earlier, more than 22 million South
Africans had turned out to cast ballots in the country's first-ever
multiracial parliamentary elections. An overwhelming majority chose
Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) party to lead the
country.

Mandela, born in 1918, was the son of the chief of the Xhosa-speaking
Tembu people. Instead of succeeding his father as chief, Mandela went
to university and became a lawyer. In 1944, he joined the African
National Congress (ANC), a black political organization dedicated to
winning rights for the black majority in white-ruled South Africa. In
1948, the racist National Party came to power, and apartheid--South
Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial
segregation--became official government policy. With the loss of black
rights under apartheid, black enrollment in the ANC rapidly grew.
Mandela became one of the ANC's leaders and in 1952 was made deputy
national president of the ANC. He organized nonviolent strikes,
boycotts, marches, and other acts of civil disobedience.

After the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in
1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to
engage in acts of sabotage against the white minority government. He
was tried for and acquitted of treason in 1961 but in 1962 was
arrested again for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and
sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial
again in 1963 with seven others on charges of sabotage, treason, and
conspiracy. In the celebrated Rivonia Trial, named after the suburb of
Johannesburg where ANC weapons were found, Mandela eloquently defended
his actions. On June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal
Robben Island Prison. He was confined to a small cell without a bed or
plumbing and was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write
and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was
allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela's
resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of
the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience
at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically
improving conditions on Robben Island. In 1982 he was moved to
Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland, and in 1988 to a cottage, where he
lived under house arrest.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about
dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended
executions, and on February 11, 1990, ordered the release of Nelson
Mandela. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the
minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a
multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 26, 1994, the country's first
free elections were won by Mandela and the ANC, and a "national unity"
coalition was formed with de Klerk's National Party and the Zulus'
Inkatha Freedom Party. On May 10, Mandela was inaugurated in a
ceremony attended by numerous international dignitaries.

As president, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission to investigate human rights violations under apartheid and
introduced numerous initiatives designed to improve the living
standards of South Africa's black population. In 1996, he presided
over the enactment of a new South African constitution. Mandela
retired from politics in June 1999 at the age of 80. He was succeeded
as president by Thabo Mbeki of the ANC.

May 11, 1997:
IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

May 11 1981:

Reggae legend Bob Marley dies of cancer on this day in 1981 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Marley, born in Jamaica in 1945, began recording in his late teens.
He formed his band, the Wailers, in 1963.
In the early 1970s, the band's records began to catch on outside Jamaica, assisted by Eric Clapton's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff."
Marley's music influenced countless later musicians.

May 11, 1981:
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Cats" opened in London. It ran for 21 years and closed 11th May 2002 after 8949 performances.

May 12, 2006:
Justin Gatlin ties the fastest 100m sprint ever in a time of 9.77 seconds in Doha, Qatar.