February 11 Birthday
February 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison near Cape Town, a free man after twenty-seven and a half years of imprisonment. He had been arrested in 1962 for sabotage and conspiracy, convicted at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, and sentenced to life. He spent eighteen years on Robben Island, breaking rocks in a limestone quarry. The glare damaged his eyes permanently. His release had been negotiated over four years with the South African government, which had concluded that apartheid was economically unsustainable. Mandela's first words to the crowd, broadcast live: "I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy, and freedom for all." He was seventy-one. He would be elected president four years later. The Lateran Treaty was signed on this day in 1929 between Mussolini's Italy and the Holy See. It created Vatican City as an independent sovereign state — 109 acres, the smallest country in the world. The Pope received full temporal authority within the city walls. The treaty resolved the "Roman Question" that had existed since 1870, when Italian forces seized Rome and stripped the Pope of his temporal power. The Pope had refused to leave the Vatican and considered himself a "prisoner." The treaty also made Catholicism the state religion of Italy and mandated religious education in schools. Mussolini wanted the Church's support; the Church wanted its land. The deal suited both. On February 11, 1979, the Iranian Revolution culminated in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini taking power, ten days after returning from exile in France. The Shah had fled Iran on January 16. Khomeini declared an Islamic Republic, and within months, the new government began executing former officials, imposing religious law, and repressing opposition. In November, students seized the US Embassy, holding fifty-two Americans hostage for 444 days. The revolution ended Iran's alignment with the West and established the first modern theocracy. Its consequences — the Iran-Iraq War, the destabilization of the region, the ongoing conflict between Sunni and Shia — continue to shape the world. Thomas Edison, born this day in 1847, held 1,093 patents, more than anyone in American history. He did not invent the light bulb — he improved it. He did not invent the phonograph — he did invent that. He electrocuted animals to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current, which was promoted by his rival Nikola Tesla, in an attempt to discredit AC. He was a genius and a ruthless businessman. Leslie Nielsen, born this day in 1926, was a serious dramatic actor for thirty years before Airplane! reinvented him as a comedian at fifty-four. "Surely you can't be serious." "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.". People born on February 11 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Amethyst and the birth flower is Violet. Historical events on February 11 include 1929: Lateran Treaty signed, creating Vatican City as sovereign state, 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini takes power in Iran, 1990: Nelson Mandela released from prison after 27 years. Famous people born on February 11 include Thomas Edison (1847), Leslie Nielsen (1926), Jennifer Aniston (1969).