Colonial Era (1500 - 1808)

• 1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas establishes Portuguese domain over Brazil east of the 46° 37' W meridian.
• 1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Pedro Alvares Cabral independently reach Brazil.
• 1530 - After a series of French incursions, Martim Afonso de Souza leads an expedition to Brazil that constructs the colony's first settlements, Sao Paulo and Sao Vicente.
• 1624 to 1654 - Dutch incursions.
• 1789 - Inconfidencia Mineira rebellion ends, and its leader, Tiradentes, is hanged.

• 1808 - Queen Maria I and regent Joao VI escape from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro as Napoleon conquers Portugal. Brazil becomes a "united reign" and receives the same status that Portugal originally enjoyed.
• 1821 - Portuguese government returns to Portugal.

• 1822 - Joao's son, Dom Pedro I, proclaims himself Emperor of Brazil on September 7th.
• 1831 - Dom Pedro I becomes king of Portugal, and leaves his five year old son, Dom Pedro II, in charge of Brazil, with several regents actually running the government.
• 1840 - Dom Pedro II assumes full duties as emperor.
• 1888 - Slavery is abolished by the Golden Law of Princess Regent Isabel.

• 1889 - Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca stages a coup, overthrows the emperor, and declares Brazil a federal republic on November 15. Though a republic in name, the government uses a system of patronage called "coronelismo" in practice.
• 1890 - "Hino Nacional Brasileiro" is adopted as the national anthem.
• 1891 - Constitution of the United States of Brazil is ratified.
• 1897 - The War of Canudos is fought in Bahia.
• 1908 - First ship of Japanese immigrants arrives in Brazil.
• 1929 - Brazil's coffee industry is devastated by the Great Depression.
• 1930 - Brazilian gold reserves are depleted; with unrest building across the country, Washington Luís resigns as president and Getulio Dornelles Vargas takes over.
• 1934 - New constitution establishes extensive state support of private enterprise.
• 1935 - ANL, a left-wing splinter group, is illegalized and forced to move underground.
• 1937 - Vargas takes over as dictator after revealing a supposed communist plan to overthrow the government.
• 1942 - Brazil joins the Allies in the European theater of World War II.
• 1945 - Vargas is overthrown in a coup.
• 1950 - Vargas becomes president for the second time.
• 1954 - Vargas committs suicide.
• 1956 - Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira becomes president.
• 1958 - Brazil's national soccer team wins the World Cup for the first time.
• 1960 - Brasilia, the new capital city, is completed.
• 1961 - Janio Quadros becomes president.
• 1964 - After a coup on March 31st, General Humberto Castello Branco becomes president.
• 1965 - All political parties other than ARENA and MDB are banned.
• 1968 - Brazil is renamed "Federative Republic of Brazil." General Arthur da Costa e Silva becomes president and promulgates Institutional Act Number 5, allowing the president to close Congress and suppress most civil rights.
• 1969 - General Emilio Garrastazu Medici becomes president.
• 1974 - General Ernesto Geisel becomes president.
• 1979 - General Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo becomes president.
• 1982 - Figueiredo allows blacklisted politicians to run for office for the first time since the 1970's.

• 1985 - Tancredo Neves becomes the first civilian president of Brazil; he dies two months into his term and is succeeded by Jose Sarney.
• 1988 - Modern constitution is ratified.
• 1990 - Fernando Collor de Mello is elected president.
• 1992 - Mello resigns, facing impeachment, and is replaced by vice president Itamar Franco.
• 1994 - Fernando Henrique Cardoso is elected president.
• 2003 - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected president, the first elected liberal president in Brazilian history.