Nelson Mandela is frequently mentioned alongside other luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi and the unknown rebel of Tienanmen Square as 20th century’s greatest symbols of the fight for freedom. He blazed his own path to freedom, and he did it, ironically, from captivity. Mandela began his political activism as the co-founder of an armed resistance movement, carrying out acts of destruction and sabotage against the ruling government and its policy of apartheid. He was arrested, possibly through a tip from the CIA, and imprisoned for almost thirty years.

On this day, February 11, in 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally granted freedom, amidst the government’s general loosening of the apartheid system.

For the first several decades, Mandela led the fight against apartheid mostly by reputation. Prison officials made sure to limit his contact with family, friends and supporters. He did, however, receive by correspondence courses a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London. By 1985, the South African government discreetly began informal negotiations with him, leading up to his eventual release, on his own terms.