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Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about 350 kilometres (217 mi) west of the state capital Bangalore. Bound by the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, Mangalore is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western Karnataka. Mangalore developed as a port on the Arabian Sea – remaining, to this day, a major port of India. Lying on the backwaters of the Netravati and Gurupura rivers, Mangalore is often used as a staging point for sea traffic along the Malabar Coast. The city has a tropical climate and lies on the path of the Arabian Sea branch of the South-West monsoons. Mangalore was ruled by several major powers, including the Kadambas, Vijayanagar dynasty, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, and the Portuguese. The city was a source of contention between the British and the Mysore rulers, Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan. Eventually annexed by the British in 1799, Mangalore remained part of the Madras Presidency until India's independence in 1947. The city's landscape is characterized by rolling hills, coconut palms, freshwater streams, and hard red-clay tiled-roof buildings. (more...)

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• 1463 – French poet François Villon was banned from Paris by the Parlement after being commuted from a death sentence.
• 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross (pictured) was inaugurated as Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state.
• 1941 – World War II: Australian and British troops defeated Italian forces in Bardia, Libya, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part.
• 1991 – Georgian troops attacked Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, opening the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.
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