July 18, 1918

    Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela is born in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of South Africa’s Eastern Cape. He was given the name Nelson by a schoolteacher but is also sometimes called Madiba, his traditional clan name.

    1939

    Mandela attends the University of Fort Hare, one of the few higher education facilities for black South Africans at the time.

    1944

    Mandela joins the African National Congress, a political party dedicated to opposing apartheid, South Africa’s legal system of racial segregation. That same year, Mandela marries Evelyn Ntoko; the couple will have four children during their 13-year marriage.

    1952

    Mandela leads the newly launched ANC Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, a program of nonviolent mass resistance.

    1958

    After his divorce from Evelyn Ntoko, Mandela marries Nomzamo Winifred “Winnie” Madikizela, a young social worker. They have two daughters.

    March 21, 1960

    The South African Government outlaws the ANC after the Sharpeville Massacre and Mandela will go underground to form a new military wing of the organization.

    June 1961

    Mandela begins organizing the armed struggle against apartheid with the group Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

    1964

    The government convicts him of treason and sentences him to life in prison on Robben Island.

    Feb. 11, 1990

    Mandela is released from prison after 27 years.

    1991

    Mandela is elected president of the ANC.

    Dec. 10, 1993

    Mandela and South Africa’s last apartheid president, F.W. de Klerk, share the Nobel Peace Prize.

    April 29, 1994

    Mandela is elected president in the first open election in South African history.

    1998

    Mandela marries Graca Machel, widow of late Mozambican President Samora Machel. The following year, his presidential term ends.

    Dec. 5, 2013

    Mandela dies at his home in Johannesburg at age 95.