Present-day Kozhikode District was among the territories ceded to the British East India Company by Tipu Sultan of Mysore in 1792, at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Mysore War. The newly-acquired British possessions on the Malabar Coast were organized into Malabar District, which included present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, and Wayanad. Calicut served as the administrative headquarters of the district. Malabar District was part of the Madras Presidency, a province of British India.
After India's Independence in 1947, Madras Presidency was renamed Madras State. When Madras state was divided along linguistic lines by the State Names Reorganisation Act, Malabar District was combined with the erstwhile state of Travancore-Cochin and Kasaragod District to form the state of Kerala on 1 November 1956.
Malabar District was considered too large for effective administration. It was divided into the districts of Kozhikode, Kannur, and Palakkad on 1 January 1957. The district had five taluks, Vadakara, Koyilandy, Kozhikode, Ernad, and Tirur. On 16 June 1969, Ernad and Tirur Taluks became part of the newly-created Malappuram District. South Wayanad, which forms the southern portion of present-day Wayanad District, was added to Kozhikode for a time, but in 1980 became part of newly-created Wayanad District.
