Rio de Janeiro: Did you mean...?

An 1816 painting of Rio de Janeiro. Rio was made sole capital of Portuguese Brazil in 1763. Painted by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay. (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio)

With a wealth of natural resources, Brazil was by far the most important colony in the Portuguese empire and was, at one time or another, the world’s leading producer of sugar, diamonds, and tobacco. Colonised from the 1530s...

The Zeppelin airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flying over Rio, Brazil, 1930. The Graf Zeppelin completed a circumnavigation of the globe in 1929.

The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was a conflict between the United States and Mexico, sparked by the US annexation of Texas in 1845. Hoping to seize even more territory from Mexico, US President James K. Polk (served 1845-1849...

Battle of Río San Gabriel (8 Jan 1847) between US forces and the Californios during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), oil on canvas by James Walker, circa 19th century.

Transatlantic Zeppelins carried passengers in relative luxury between Germany and New York or Rio de Janeiro during the 1920s and 1930s. The airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic...

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) was an American military officer who served as the twelfth president of the United States. Born to a family of prominent Virginian planters, Taylor joined the US Army...

James K. Polk (1795-1849) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the eleventh president of the United States. A protégé of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), he was the dark-horse candidate of the...

Ferdinand Magellan, or Fernão de Magalhães (c. 1480-1521), was a Portuguese mariner whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519-22 in the service of Spain. Magellan was killed on the voyage in what is...

The Hindenburg disaster occurred on 6 May 1937 when the German Zeppelin airship LZ 129 Hindenburg attempted to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey, but burst into flames. The airship's gas cells were...