Resource 2: The rise and fall of Idi Amin

 Background information / subject knowledge for teacher

1962 (1 March) – Uganda becomes a self-governing country under PM Benedicto Kiwanuka.

1962 (30 April) – Milton Obote takes over as prime minister of Uganda.

1962 (9 October) – Uganda becomes an independent state within the BritainCommonwealth.

1963 – PM Obote abolishes Uganda's status as a Commonwealth realm and replaces the post of governor-general with a figurehead presidency. Edward Mutesa, king of the Buganda region, is elected president in rigged elections.

1966 (2 March) – Milton Obote stages a coup against President Edward Mutesa and has himself declared president of Uganda.

1966 – President Obote of Uganda makes Idi Amin military chief of staff.

1966–1986 – For two decades, Ugandans live under the rule of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.

1971 (25 January) – Idi Amin leads a military coup that seizes power while President Obote is at a summit in Singapore. Obote seeks refuge in Tanzania.

1971 (2 February) – Idi Amin assumes power in Uganda.

1971 (20 February) – Major General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president of Uganda.

1972 (4 August) – President Idi Amin gives some 50,000 Asians 90 days to leave the country following an alleged dream in which, he claimed, God told him to expel them.

1972 (18 September) – Thousands of Gujarati Indians begin arriving in Britain following their expulsion from Uganda by Dictator Idi Amin. Deprived of its business class the nation soon plummets into economic chaos.

1974 – The documentary film General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait is directed by Barbet Schroeder.

1976 (27 June) – An Air France airbus is hijacked in Germany and taken to Uganda.

1976 (3 July) – Israel launches its daring mission to rescue 103 passengers and Air France crew members being held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers.

1976 (4 July) – Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin, leads and is killed in an Israeli raid called Operation Thunderball that rescues the hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The raid frees all but three of the 104 Israeli and Jewish hostages and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. 20 Ugandan soldiers, one Israeli officer, three hostages and seven hijackers died. The hijacking was linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

1976 (9 July) – Uganda asks UN to condemn Israeli hostage rescue raid on Entebbe.

1977 (16 February) – Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men are killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident.

1977 – Henry Kyemba, a former Uganda minister in Idi Amin’s government, authored in exile A State of Blood, a description of his years as a minister under Amin.

1978 (30 October) – Ugandan troops attack Tanzania.

1978 - Uganda under Idi Amin goes on to annex a 700-square-mile section of Tanzania. President Nyerere sends Tanzanian soldiers and Ugandan exile volunteers to push back Amin's forces.

1979 (11 April) – Idi Amin deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control. Amin flees into exile in Saudi Arabia.

1979 (3 June) Amin flees to Libya.

1980 – Elections in Uganda return Milton Obote to power.

2003 – Idi Amin dies in Saudi Arabia.

Adapted from original source: http://timelines.ws/ countries/ UGANDA.HTML [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]