(Image source from: Google honours Nelson Mandela})

Former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was born today 96 years ago. Google is celebrating Nelson Mandela's birth anniversary with an interactive doodle on its home page.

Visitors to the Google site will see an illustration of the anti-apartheid hero. They can click at the illustration and go through a number of his well-known quotes. It also takes visitors through illustrations depicting various stages in his 'Long Walk to Freedom'.

Nelson Mandela was born on 18th July 1918 and passed away on 5th December 2013. He died from pulmonary infection. Politically, Nelson Mandela was African nationalist and democratic socialist. The African leader became a member of the African National Congress (ANC) and went on to become its president. From 1994 to 1999 Mandela served as the president of South Africa, after spending 27 years in prison, on charges of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state.

During his internment in prison, Mandela studied law and the Afrikaans language. This helped him to converse with the men who guarded him in prison.

One of the illustration in Google shows Mandela's imprisonment in Robben Island where he's reading. It has the quote: "Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world".

The call for freedom to Nelson Mandela began in 1980 with the slogan "Free Mandela!". The demand to free the South African statesman grew louder, leading to the UN Security Council supporting Mandela's release.

However, the cold war allies of South Africa's, including Margaret Thatcher, saw Nelson Mandela as a communist terrorist and were against his release. Finally in 2008 the ANC members were marked off from the US terrorism watch list.

Nelson Mandela was a true revolutionary, who became the face of benevolence, compassion and wisdom. He is the "father of the nation" for South Africa.

(AW: Pratima Tigga)