Today in history, February 11: When the world was changed forever

Today in history signifies an epoch-making change that has left an indelible mark in the world. On February 11, 1990, South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. Mandela went on to get elected as president of South Africa four years later.

Also on this date, in 1847, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. In 1937, a six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize and negotiate with the United Auto Workers union.

In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.


In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party.

In 1990, in one of the biggest upsets in sports history, 42-1 underdog Buster Douglas knocked out the previously undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson at Japan’s Tokyo Dome.

In 2008, the Pentagon charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

In 2011, Egypt President Hosni Mubarak resigned in the wake of pro-democracy protests, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.

In 2012, singing superstar Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room bathtub in Beverly Hills, California on the eve of the Grammy Awards; she was 48.

In 2013, during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI announced he would resign as pope effective February 28; it was the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years.

In 2020, the World Health Organization gave the official name of COVID-19 to the disease caused by the coronavirus that had emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.