1500The Tupinambá people inhabit Guanabara Bay.

1531Martim Afonso de Sousa, a Portuguese colonial administrator, arrives in Rio de Janeiro.

1763Brazil’s capital is transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.

1835Transportation by English ferries between Rio de Janeiro and Niterói began.

1906Santos Dumont performs the first airplane flight in history with his 14-bis.

1932Christ the Redeemer is inaugurated—the world’s largest Art Deco sculpture.

1937The DNER (National Department of Roadways) is created.

1954President Getúlio Vargas dies by suicide at the presidential palace in Catete, Rio de Janeiro.

1960The federal capital is moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília.

1961Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes a complete lap around the Earth.

1965The government creates the Executive Commission of the Bridge.

1967Arthur da Costa e Silva becomes President of Brazil and decrees Institutional Act No. 5 (AI-5).

1968The Rio-Niterói Construction Consortium wins the bid to build the bridge.

1969Construction begins on the President Costa e Silva Bridge, popularly known as the Rio-Niterói Bridge.

1969Gurgel Motores S/A, the first Brazilian car manufacturer, is founded.

1971ECEX – Empresa de Construção e Exploração da Ponte (Bridge Construction and Operation Company) is established.

1973The bridge is built simultaneously from both ends by Brazilian and British workers.

1974Ernesto Geisel becomes President of Brazil, succeeding Emílio Médici.

1974The President Costa e Silva Bridge is officially inaugurated.