On this day in ...... 1976, a contingent of about 200 Israeli commandoes rescued 100 hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda and then flew them to Israel (at right; photo credit). The commandoes waged a gunfight for more than half an hour; 20 Ugandan soldiers, 7 hijackers, the commandoes' leader, and 3 hostages were killed. The operation ended a crisis that began when an Air France flight, bound from Paris to Israel via Athens, was hijacked on June 27.
... 1946, the United States granted independence to the Philippines (flag below left). But because the U.S. grant came with strings attached, Filipinos were not happy with celebrating
on that date, and thus in 1962 Independence Day was switched to June 12, the date that revolutionaries in 1898 proclaimed independence from Spain.
