World Celebrates Nelson Mandela Day: 96th Birthday Of Anti-Apartheid Revolutionary And South African President

Today, July 18, marks South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela's birthday. He would have been 96.

Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, died on December 5, 2013.

In 2009, Nelson Mandela day was unanimously sanctioned by the U.N. General Assembly. According to the The Nelson Mandela Foundation Initiative website, the day was created to honor the civil rights leader and inspire others and to "take responsibility for making the world a better place, one small step at a time."

The Foundation also said this year's focus is on literacy, shelter and food security, all of which remain a global concern.

This year also marks 20 years since Mandela became president of South Africa ending three centuries of white rule.

Celebrations will take place in all corners of the globe. Events will be held all across Scotland, particularly in Glasgow which was the first city in the world to honor Mandela with the freedom of the city back in 1981. There, his granddaughter, Tukwini Mandela, will be a guest of honor at a ribbon-tying ceremony in the Glasgow street that bears her grandfather's name, Nelson Mandela Place.

And on Detroit's riverfront, a street formerly known as Atwater Street is getting a new name - Nelson Mandela Drive.

In Mandela's home country of South Africa, millions of South Africans are encouraged to spend 67 minutes today working for the good of others. (67 is the number of years Mandela spent fighting for social justice.)

South African cinema chain Ster Kinekor has teamed up with The Nelson Mandela Foundation to put on free screenings of the Mandela biopic Long Walk To Freedom in the hope people who see the film will be inspired to follow the great man's lead.

Nelson Mandela Foundation's chief executive Sello Hatang is pleased the day -and Mandela's message - is gaining steam around the world: "In 2009, we had two cities initiate Mandela Day... Johannesburg and New York. Fast forward to 2014, we have 126 countries doing something for Mandela Day."

via IB Times