Nelson Mandela freed after 27 years on this day
South African leader Nelson Mandela was released from jail after 27-year-long imprisonment on February 11, 1990. In June 1964, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of treason and sabotage. Mandela, the leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, later became South Africa's first democratically elected President on May 10, 1994.