Nelson Mandela, confessing abiding love marred by pain, announced that he and his tempestuous wife Winnie had agreed to part. As controversy swirled around his wife’s alleged involvement in township killings, Mandela told a news conference “circumstances beyond our control” had shattered their 33-year marriage. “My love for her remains undiminished,” he said, visibly upset as he read a one-and-a-half page statement to reporters at the headquarters of his ANC. “However, in view of the tensions that have arisen owing to the differences between ourselves on a number of issues in recent months, we have mutually agreed that a separation would be best for each of us,” he said. Mandela, 73, said his parting from his wife, 16 years his junior, was not forced by fresh published allegations that she was directly involved in the killings in Soweto in 1989 of 14-year-old activist Stompie Seipei and a doctor, Abu Baker Asvat. Winnie has denied the reports.
Other important events:
1772 Warren Hastings is appointed Governor of Bengal in India.
1796 French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte defeat Austrians at Millesimo, Italy.
1848 Sicily is declared independent of Naples.
1849 The Hungarian Republic is proclaimed.
1919 British troops fire on a gathering in Jallianwala Bagh, India, killing 379 people.
1923 The Illinois state legislature votes to allow women to serve on juries.
1935 Commercial air service between London and Australia is established.
1936 British footballer Joe Payne scores a record 10 goals in one match against Bristol Rovers.
1961 UN General Assembly condemns South African apartheid.
1964 Sidney Poitier becomes the first black to win an Academy Award for best actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field.
1970 Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, is crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen bursts.
1975 Civil war breaks out in Lebanon.
1984 India wins the first Asia Cup in Sharjah after beating Pakistan in the final.
1986 Stampede by Hindu pilgrims kills at least 46 people at a religious festival near New Delhi.
1987 Portugal signs agreement to return Macau to China.
1989 Independent Solidarity trade union in Poland files for registration after seven-year ban.
1995 Turkish soldiers wave to their colleagues as they leave northern Iraq.
1997 Tiger Woods wins a historic Masters title with a 12-stroke victory at age 21.
2002 At least 160 police and Maoist rebels are killed in a single night of fighting, the worst carnage in the six-year-old insurgency in Nepal.
2003 Britain’s Paula Radcliffe breaks her own world record by nearly two minutes to retain her London Marathon title.
2006 UAE sets up the National Media Council and the National Transport Authority.
2008 Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki names Raila Odinga as prime minister.
2011 Egypt detains former president Hosni Mubarak, sons to investigate accusations of corruption and abuse of authority.
2013 Lion Air, an Indonesian plane, breaks in two after missing the runway at Bali airport and landing in the sea, but there no fatalities.
2015 Yemen’s Prime Minister Khalid Bahah sworn in as vice-president in exile in Riyadh.
2016 Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant retires from NBA.
