Hendrik Verwoerd assassinated in Cape Town

On September 6, 1966, Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister of South Africa and a primary architect of the apartheid system, was assassinated during a parliamentary session in Cape Town. He was stabbed repeatedly by Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary messenger.

Verwoerd is noted for transforming existing racial discrimination and territorial separations into a highly structured system of segregation that regulated the living, educational, and professional lives of millions. While his death removed a leading ideologue of the regime, the apartheid system continued to function for nearly three more decades.