10 May
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1994 - Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president of South Africa

"Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread and salt for all. The time for the healing of the wounds has come."
[President Nelson Mandela of South Africa is inaugurated on 10 May 1994.]

Feast day of St Catald, St Conleth, Saints Gordian and Epimachus, St Antoninus, St Alphius, St Calepodius, St Solange, and St John of Avila.

Events
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994 The Danes devastated Anglesey in Wales.

1857 William Pitt the younger, British prime minister, returned to office.

1857 A revolt of Sepoys at Meerut began the Indian Mutiny against British rule.

1893 Natal, in S Africa, was granted self-government.

1910 The British House of Commons resolved that the maximum lifetime of Parliament be reduced from seven to five years.

1916 Ernest Shackleton and companions reached South Georgia after sailing 1,300 km/800 mi in 16 days in an open boat to seek help for the remaining members of their party, marooned on Elephant Island, Antarctica.

1941 The House of Commons was destroyed in London's heaviest air raid.

1981 François Mitterrand became the first Socialist President of France with 51.7% of vote to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's 48.3%.

1988 Chirac resigned as French Prime Minister and was replaced by Michel Rocard (Socialist).

1994 Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president of South Africa.

1995 Terry Lynn Nichols, a material witness in the April car-bombing attack on a federal office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was formally charged in the bombing.

1995 More than 100 workers died in one of the worst mine disasters in South Africa's history. The disaster occurred at Anglo-American Corp's Vaal Reefs gold mine near Orkney, 112 mi/180 km SW of Johannesburg, when an underground train fell into a shaft and crashed on top of an elevator.

1995 Michael Ancram, the government minister for Northern Ireland, in Belfast met with representatives of Sinn Fein in the first public encounter between a government minister and Sinn Fein since 1973.