Last updated:聽2 february, 2010 - 14:46 GMT
Change of course
It was 20 years ago today that a man in South Africa stood up in parliament and changed the course not only of South African history but that of the continent and of the world.
The man was FW de Klerk, the last white president of South Africa who up to that point had been seen by the rest of the world as a staunch defender of a pariah and racist state that kept Nelson Mandela in prison for almost three decades.
Nick Ericsson describes the momentous day.