Mandela takes the oath at Pretoria; three and a half centuries of white minority rule end

Pretoria, 10 May 1994: Nelson Mandela — prisoner for 27 years, underground guerrilla organizer, and now president-elect — took the oath of office at the Union Buildings before four thousand guests and an estimated billion television viewers worldwide. The man born Rolihlahla, a Xhosa word colloquially meaning "troublemaker," had spent the better part of five decades working to dismantle the system that had just handed him its highest office. The inauguration ended three and a half centuries of white minority rule in South Africa…