Today in History: November 18

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On this day in 1928, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse made his first appearance at the Colony Theatre in New York in a film called “Steamboat Willie”.

In 1978 Jim Jones, an American pastor, led 914 of his followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana by taking cyanide-laced drinks. Cult members who refused were shot.

Jones was a charismatic churchman who established the Peoples Temple, a Christian sect, in Indianapolis in the 1950s. He preached against racism, and his integrated congregation attracted many African Americans.

On November 18, 1993, black and white leaders in South Africa approved a new democratic constitution which gave blacks the vote.

It was an historic milestone on their negotiated journey beyond apartheid. Democracy negotiators also agreed that the coalition government scheduled to be elected April 27 in the country’s first all-races election will rule in the “spirit” of national unity.