This Day in History

1893 Daniel Hale Williams, an American heart surgeon, performs the first successful open-heart surgery in US without anesthesia

1991 After being banned from the Olympic games for 21 years, the Olympics Committee ends it ban on participation by SA allowing SA athletes to compete in the 1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain

2002 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The organisation's first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, then president of SA