Discovery Day in Brazil Date in the current year: April 22, 2024

There are several theories regarding who Brazil was discovered by, but the widely accepted theory asserts that Portuguese navigator and explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral was the first European to set foot on the land now known as Brazil.

In 1494, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas that divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between two countries along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde archipelago. It is this treaty that gave the Portuguese Empire rights to the land that would become Brazil.

In 1500, King Manuel I of Portugal assembled the Second Portuguese India Armada and placed it under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral's expedition set out from the Tagus on March 9, 1500. On March 22, Cabral's fleet reached Cape Verde and headed southwest from there. After nearly a month of sailing, the armada noticed the first indications of land.

On April 22, Cabral sighted the Brazilian coast and landed in Porto Seguro. He named the newly discovered land Ilha de Vera Crus (Island of the True Cross) because he thought it was an island.