Louisville is a city in Northern Kentucky and the seat of Jefferson County.

The city is a major port of entry on the Southern bank of the Ohio River.

Louisville is the economic focus of a large metropolitan area that extends across the Ohio River into Indiana and includes a great variety of industries.

Manufactures range from household appliances, farm machinery, trucks, motor-vehicle equipment, processed food, tobacco products, paint, and rubber to such Louisville specialties as bourbon whiskey, "Louisville Slugger" baseball bats, and books printed in Braille (see Braille System).

United Parcel Service (UPS) has a regional headquarters in the city.

Louisville, which has extensive convention facilities, is served by Louisville International Airport as well as by modern port installations.

Situated in an area once inhabited by the Shawnee people, the community was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and is one of the oldest settlements West of the Appalachian Mountains.

Originally located on Corn Island in the Ohio River, the settlement was moved to its present site in 1779.

It was named in 1780 for Louis XVI of France in gratitude for French assistance during the American Revolution (1775-1783).

In 1828, it incorporated as a city.

In the 19th century, Louisville was a leading commercial center for the developing South and MidWest, prospering first as a transshipment point around the Falls of the Ohio, and later as a river port after a canal was constructed around the falls in 1830.

The city became a rail center in the 1850s, and served as a Union stronghold during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Louisville was badly damaged by tornadoes in 1890 and 1974, and by a flood of the Ohio River in 1937.

Its industrial base was broadened and many new buildings were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Louisville’s population declined considerably in the 1970s and 1980s, due to industry moving outside the city.

The recession in the 1980s caused the loss of manufacturing jobs, but the population of its metropolitan area increased.