Top 10 Brazil facts

None. The Portuguese were the Europeans who encountered Guanabara Bay on January 1,1502. They took it for a large river, which they named "Rio de Janeiro" ("January River"). Later it was discovered, that the presumed river was in fact a gulf, but the name remained.

Brazil. Dom Pedro II (1825 – 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina. Pedro II steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests

Flor de Maio (May flower). In Brazil, the genus is referred to as Flor de Maio (May flower), reflecting the period in which they flower in the Southern hemisphere.

Sloths. Research conducted in a nesting site in Brazil concluded that the harpy's prey basis was composed in 79% by sloths. In a similar research venture in Panama, 53% of captures were sloths.

It is the home of the venomous snakes. Ilha de Queimada Grande is the only home of one of the world’s deadliest and most endangered snakes, golden lancehead vipers. These vipers’ venom can kill a person very quick hence the Brazilian government strictly controls visits to the island.

Rio de Janeiro. Rio was the capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, both during the Portuguese colonial era and as an independent nation. With the population of 6.3 million, it is the second largest city in Brazil, after São Paulo (11M).

Oscar Niemeyer. In 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek, newly elected Brazilian president, visited Niemeyer: ‘I am going to build a new capital for this country and I want you to help me’. Niemeyer organized a competition for the lay-out of Brasília, the new capital, and the winner was the project of his old master and great friend, Lúcio Costa. Niemeyer would design the buildings, Lucio the plan of the city.

Portugal. On November 29,1807, Braganza royal family and its court of nearly 15,000 people escaped from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, shortly before Napoleonic forces invaded Lisbon. For thirteen years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.

Bjarni Herjólfsson. Bjarni was heading to Greenland to visit his father in 986, when he drifted south and found himself near the coast of today Canada. Despite his crew eagerness, he refused to land and only attested the discovery of a land full of trees and hills.

Pardo is a term used in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas to refer to the multiracial descendants of Europeans, Indigenous Americans, South Asians, and West Africans. The term "pardo" is more commonly used to refer to mixed-race Brazilians, individuals with varied racial ancestries.