Post date: Dec 05, 2013 11:22:46 PM
Broadcasters break into programming to announce that Nelson Mandela has died at the age of 95.
NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 5, 2013)(CBS NEWS) - North American broadcasters broke the news of Nelson Mandela's death on Thursday (December 5) during quickly organized news bulletins.
The storied former South African president died peacefully at his Johannesburg home at the age of 95 after a prolonged lung infection.Both CBS and CBC relayed moving tributes and photo montages of Mandela, who has been called one of the most influential people of the past century.
Mandela, the country's first black president and anti-apartheid icon, emerged from 27 years in apartheid prisons to help guide South Africa through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government - a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its most respected and loved figures.