Entebbe - History

History

"Entebbe", in the local Luganda language, means a "seat", and was probably named that because it was the place where a Baganda chief sat to adjudicate legal cases. It first became a British colonial administrative and commercial centre in 1893 when Sir Gerald Portal, a colonial Commissioner, used it as a base. Port Bell went on to become Kampala's harbour. Although no ships dock there now, there is still a jetty, which was used by Lake Victoria ferries. Entebbe is perhaps best known to Europeans as the home of Entebbe International Airport, the main international airport of Uganda, which was started in 1947. The Entebbe airport was the scene of one of the most daring counter-terrorism operations in history when soldiers from an elite unit of the Israeli army freed over 100 hostages following a hijacking by a group of Palestinian and German militia. It was also from this airport that Queen Elizabeth II departed Africa to return to England in 1952 when she learned of her father's death and that she had become Queen.