Tulagi

Tulagi
Rainbow over Tulagi Island
Location in the Nggela Islands
Tulagi Tulagi is north of Guadalcanal Island
Coordinates: 09°06′S 160°09′E / 9.100°S 160.150°E / -9.100; 160.150
Country	Solomon Islands
Province	Central
Island group	Nggela (Florida) Islands
Population (2009 census)
• Total	1,251
Climate	Af

Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island (5.5 km by 1 km) in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1896 to 1942 and is today the capital of the Central Province. The capital of what is now the state of Solomon Islands moved to Honiara, Guadalcanal, after World War II.

The island was originally chosen by the British as a comparatively isolated and healthier alternative to the disease-ridden larger islands of the Solomon Islands archipelago.

The first recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña on 16 April 1568. More precisely the sighting was due to a local voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the brigantine Santiago, commanded by Maestre de Campo Pedro Ortega Valencia and having Hernán Gallego as pilot.

The Japanese occupied Tulagi on May 3, 1942, with the intention of establishing a seaplane base nearby (see Japanese Tulagi landing). The ships in Tulagi harbor were raided by planes from USS Lexington the following day in a prelude to the Battle of the Coral Sea.

U.S. forces, primarily the 1st Marine Raiders, landed on August 7 and captured Tulagi as part of Operation Watchtower after a day of hard fighting.