diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 6e95a051108206be6772f0d27df1a277b35fc685..333caa4d3d79b8432db347bec840ba0010554e34 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -68,8 +68,9 @@ CVS code -
 	- Readded the errors flag and moved the ending prompt from
 	  rcfile_error() to parse_rcfile() so that we only get prompted
 	  once for all errors instead of separately for each error.
-	  (DLR)  David Benbennick: Make sure that no rcfile error 
-	  messages end in newlines.
+	  (DLR)  David Benbennick: Make sure that no rcfile error
+	  messages end in newlines, and show the ending prompt if we
+	  can't read the .nano_history file while starting nano.
 	- Don't treat the return value of strn?(case)?cmp() as boolean.
 	  (DLR and David Benbennick)
 	- Automatically install a symlink "rnano" pointing to nano.
diff --git a/src/files.c b/src/files.c
index 573578fdbd79605479943c076ad16e771ae69bfc..bddfba91608aab2af98fa38db423bcfe646885ec 100644
--- a/src/files.c
+++ b/src/files.c
@@ -2943,6 +2943,9 @@ void load_history(void)
 		/* Don't save history when we quit. */
 		UNSET(HISTORYLOG);
 		rcfile_error(N_("Error reading %s: %s"), nanohist, strerror(errno));
+		fprintf(stderr, _("\nPress Return to continue starting nano\n"));
+		while (getchar() != '\n')
+		    ;
 	    }
 	    free(nanohist);
 	} else {