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First Posted: 12/9/2013 (AP) Nearly 100 foreign leaders and tens of thousands of South Africans are expected to gather at a Soweto soccer stadium Tuesday to pay their last respects to former President Nelson Mandela, making the memorial service one of the largest and most prominent such gatherings in generations.
President Barack Obama and three of his predecessors, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and many European leaders are among those expected to assemble at Johannesburg's 95,000-capacity FNB Stadium, the South African government said Monday.
Mandela, the country's anti-apartheid icon and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died Thursday at age 95.
Here is a look at memorials in recent decades that drew the world's attention and its leaders:
Winston Churchill: His 1965 funeral was attended by "Four kings, two queens, presidents including France's Gen. Charles de Gaulle in uniform prime ministers and statesmen from 113 nations," The Associated Press reported. Hundreds of thousands of people had paid tribute while his body lay in state for three days, and thousands lined the route to the funeral service.
Pope John Paul II: His 2005 funeral drew President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac among "dignitaries from more than 80 countries, including the presidents of Syria and Iran, and the king of Jordan," the AP reported. "At least 300,000 people filled St. Peter's Square ... but millions of others watched on giant video screens set up across Rome."
President John F. Kennedy: His 1963 funeral was attended by "28 presidents, prime ministers and kings." As his horse-drawn coffin moved through Washington, "streets were lined by hundreds of thousands of people, many of them weeping."
Yitzhak Rabin: The 1995 funeral for the assassinated Israeli prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner was attended by President Bill Clinton and more than 40 other presidents or prime ministers, including some Arab ones. "It was a collection of heads of states that only three years ago would have been unimaginable," the AP reported.
Princess Diana: While her 1997 funeral drew British Prime Minister Tony Blair, then-U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and numerous foreign dignitaries, "organizers said they wanted to keep the number of politicians low to accommodate Diana's friends and people connected with charities she supported."
Mao Zedong: While a million people attended a memorial rally in Beijing for the Chinese leader in 1976, the government that long had largely closed itself off from the world continued the practice that day. "No foreign dignitaries were invited to Peking for the rally," the AP reported.
Anwar Sadat: Three former U.S. presidents attended the Egyptian president's 1981 funeral, as well as about a dozen heads of state and Prince Charles and other royalty. Heads of state of other Arab countries largely did not come.
Nelson Mandela: After the memorial service, Mandela's body then will lie in state in Pretoria for three days, and he will be buried during a state funeral in his rural hometown of Qunu on Dec. 15.
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Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.
<a title="Associated Press" href="http://www.ap.org" class="url org fn">Associated Press</a>

Mandela memorial 1 of largest in generations