Today in History

• 1990 Nelson Mandela is freed after 27 years as a political prisoner

  The anti-apartheid campaigner’s release was a high point in South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy.

• 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran

  A few days after Khomeini’s triumphant return from French exile, the Iranian army steps aside, making way for the creation of an Islamic theocracy.

• 1975 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female leader of the British Conservative Party

  Thatcher won the general elections in 1979 and became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• 1938 The BBC broadcasts Karel Čapek’s “R.U.R.”, the world’s first science fiction TV program

  The Czech play whose abbreviated title stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots” introduced the word “robot” to the English language.

• 1858 Bernadette Soubirous sees a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes

  The small town in southern France became one of the most important Christian places of pilgrimage.