12 nations sign the UNASUR Constitutive Treaty
The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty officially established the Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental continental union of twelve South American nations.
Brazil
The Sixth Brazilian Republic begins after a 21-year military regime
The negotiated transition to democracy reached its climax with the indirect election of Tancredo Neves PMDB by Congress. He was the first civilian president to be elected since 1964.
Brazil creates Jaú National Park, one of the largest forest reserves in South America
The massive reserve, covering more than 5 million acres of rainforest, is a central piece of Brazil’s Amazon conservation efforts and has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Cândido Rondon founds Brazil’s Serviço de Proteção aos Índios (SPI)
SPI – today known as the FUNAI, or Fundação Nacional do Índio, National Foundation for Indians – was the first federal agency in Brazil charged with protecting Indigenous peoples and preserving their culture.
Brazil declares independence from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves
The Independence of Brazil comprised a series of political and military events that occurred in 1821–1824, most of which involved disputes between Brazil and Portugal regarding the call for independence presented by the Brazilian Empire.
Bahia gains independence, ending Portuguese rule in Brazil
Control of the province was disputed in several battles, mostly in Pirajá, before the Portuguese were fully expelled on 2 July 1823. Bahia became a Brazilian state in 1889.
Indigenous peoples of modern-day Brazil form the Tamoyo Confederation
The main reason for this rather unusual alliance between separate tribes was to react against slavery and wholesale murder and destruction wrought by the early Portuguese discoverers and colonisers of Brazil onto the Tupinambá people.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes first European to travel to Iguazú Falls
The first European to discover the Falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls on the Argentine side is named.
Marajoara culture flourishes at the mouth of the Amazon
The Marajoara culture was a pre-Columbian era society that flourished at the mouth of the Amazon River likely between 800 C.E. and 1400 C.E.
Humans of ancient Brazil independently invent pottery
The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere, radiocarbon-dated 8,000 years old, has been excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil, near Santarém, providing evidence to overturn the assumption that the tropical forest region was too poor in resources to have supported a complex prehistoric culture.