| 1912 | A few hundred Africans meet to found the South African Native National Congress. (Eleven years later the name of the organization is changed to African National Congress (A.N.C.) |
| 1950 | Nelson Mandela becomes president of the ANC Youth League, six years after joining the organization. The same year, South Africa's National Party passes the Population Registration Act, authorizing classification of all South Africans by race, and the Group Areas Act which becomes the foundation for residential apartheid. |
| June 1955 | The ANC calls for an end to all racial discrimination. |
| December 1956 | Nelson Mandela, and over 150 other people, is arrested and charged with treason. |
| August 3, 1959 | Mandela's treason trial opens in Pretoria. |
| March 21, 1960 | In Sharpville, South African police open fireon a crowd protesting pass laws, killing 69 demonstrators and wounding 180 others. Mandela, still awaiting trial on his treason charge, is arrested at home and transferred to a Pretoria jail, where his treated brutally. |
| April 8, 1960 | The South African government officially bans the ANC. The ANC does not dissolve, but rather goes underground. |
| March 29, 1961 | Mandela and the other defendants in the treason trial are found not guilty and discharged. |
| May 1961 | Nelson Mandela goes underground to organize a general strike. |
| October 1961 | Mandela begins staying at the ANC's hideout, Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. |
| December 16, 1961 | A newly military spin-off organization of the ANC, Umkhonto We Sizwe, launches a campaign of sabotage against South Africa's National Party government by lighting explosives at an electricity sub-station. Over the next eighteen months, there will be dozens of other incidents involving sabotaged facilities. |
| January 1962 | Mandela leaves South Africa to raise funds and gain international support for the ANC and its objectives. |
| August 5, 1962 | Nelson Mandela is arrested after returning to South Africa from an extended overseas trip. He is charged with leaving the country without a permit and inciting a strike. |
| October 1962 | Mandela is convicted of leaving the country without a passport and inciting a strike. He begins serving a five-year prison term. The same month, the ANC establishes a "military wing," Umkhonto we Size (MK). |
| May 1963 | The South African government enacts a law that allows detention of persons suspected of political crimes for 90-days without a warrant. |
| July 11, 1963 | Seven men are arrested at a farmhouse in the Johannesburg suburb of Rivonia. The seven, who will be defendants charged with sabotage in the Rivonia trial, are incarcerated under a law allowing a 90-day detention without charges. |
| August 3, 1963 | Police arrest saboteur Bruno Mtolo, who will become the prosecution's star witness in the Rivonia trial. |
| August 11, 1963 | Two men the government hoped to charged with conspiracy and sabotage, Harold Wolpe and Arthur Goldreich, escape from a South African jail and within twelve days are out of the country. |
| October 9, 1963 | The Rivonia defendants appear at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, as the trial opens. The defendants are charged with sabotage and conspiracy. The defense asks for time to prepare its case. Justice de Wet grants a three-week adjournment. |
| October 29, 1963 | Justice de Wet grants a defense motion to quash the indictment. The defendants are re-arrested. |
| December 3, 1963 | The Rivonia defendants enter "not guilty" pleas to a redrawn indictment and prosecutor Percy Yuter presents the government's opening statement. |
| December 10, 1963 | The prosecution's star witness, Bruno Mtolo, takes the stand. |
| March 4, 1964 | The prosecution rests in the Nelson Mandela/Rivonia Trial. |
| April 20, 1964 | Nelson Mandela offers a statement from the dock ("I am Prepared to Die") as the defense opens its case. |
| May 20, 1964 | Closing statements begin in the Rivonia trial. |
| June 11, 1964 | The verdict is announced in the Rivonia trial. Mandela and all defendants except one (Rusty Bernstein) are found guilty. |
| July 12, 1964 | The convicted defendants are sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice de Wet. |
| July 13, 1964 | Mandela is transferred to prison on Robben Island near Cape Town |
| 1985 | Denis Goldberg is released after spending 22 years in jail. |
| 1986 | Mandela enters into secret negotiations with officials of the South African government for an eventual move to non-racial elections. |
| 1988 | Goven Mbeki is released from jail. |
| 1989 | Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba, and Andrew Mlangeni are released from jail. |
| February 1990 | Nelson Mandela is released after spending 27 years in jail. |
| 1991 | Mandela is elected president of the ANC. |
| 1993 | Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| April 27, 1994 | The first democratic elections are held in South Africa. |
| May 10, 1994 | Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. |
| 1999 | Mandela's term as president of South Africa ends. |