TODAY IN HISTORY: May 9 The Associated Press Today’s Highlight in History On May 9, 1994: South Africa’s newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first Black president. On this date In 1712: The Carolina Colony was officially divided into two entities: North Carolina and South Carolina. In 1914: President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. In 1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett supposedly became the first men to fly over the North Pole. (However, U.S. scholars announced in 1996 that their examination of Byrd’s flight diary suggested he had turned back 150 miles short of his goal.)