District Six is declared a white area

On 11 February 1966 the government proclaimed District Six, on the slopes below Table Mountain and a short walk from the city centre, a white group area under the Group Areas Act. About 60,000 people lived there. The removals began in 1968 and went on for about fifteen years; families were moved to the Cape Flats and their homes were bulldozed. Twenty-four years later to the day, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and spoke to a crowd on the Grand Parade, a few hundred metres away.