diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 1a92fd6a0d..37a0137dc8 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
  * Better handling of SSL connection errors inter-node (CASSANDRA-10816)
  * Disable reloading of GossipingPropertyFileSnitch (CASSANDRA-9474)
  * Verify tables in pseudo-system keyspaces at startup (CASSANDRA-10761)
+ * (cqlsh) encode input correctly when saving history
 Merged from 2.1:
  * Fix bad gossip generation seen in long-running clusters (CASSANDRA-10969)
  * Avoid NPE when incremental repair fails (CASSANDRA-10909)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh.py b/bin/cqlsh.py
index c03a3c2fda..17c42a6923 100644
--- a/bin/cqlsh.py
+++ b/bin/cqlsh.py
@@ -1123,7 +1123,7 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
             new_hist = srcstr.replace("\n", " ").rstrip()
 
             if nl_count > 1 and self.last_hist != new_hist:
-                readline.add_history(new_hist)
+                readline.add_history(new_hist.encode(self.encoding))
 
             self.last_hist = new_hist
         cmdword = tokens[0][1]