Rafael Perestrello

Rafael Perestrello (fl. 1514–1517) was a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Filipa Moniz Perestrello, the wife of the famed explorer Christopher Columbus. He is best known for having been the first to land on the southern shores of mainland China in 1516 and 1517 to trade in Canton, what is approximately today known in the Mandarinized name of Guangzhou, after the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares landed on Lintin Island within the Pearl River estuary in May 1513. Rafael also served as a trader and naval ship captain for the Portuguese in Sumatra and Portuguese-conquered Malacca.

João de Barros (1496–1570) wrote that Rafael Perestrello almost became lost while sailing by the Andaman Islands, but ventured safely through territory that was rumored to be inhabited by native cannibals.

Family background

Filippo Perestrello (also known as Filippone Pallastrelli), son of Gabriele Palastrelli and wife Madama Bertolina, was a nobleman from the Italian city of Piacenza who moved with his wife Catarina Sforza to Portugal in 1385, living in Porto and then in Lisbon to conduct trade. Filippo and Catarina had four children: Richarte (sometimes referred to as Rafael), Isabel (married to Aires Anes de Beja), Branca (who had natural issue by Dom Pedro de Noronha, 4th Archbishop of Lisbon from 1424 to 1452) and Bartolomeu, the latter of whom would become the father-in-law to Christopher Columbus when Christopher married his daughter Filipa. Richarte Perestrello (b. 1410) became a Prior in the parish of Santa Marinha in Lisbon, yet fathered two children who he legitimized in 1423. Rafael Perestrello was the grandson of this man, Richarte. Rafael's father's name was João Lopes Perestrello.

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro (/ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛəroʊ, -deɪ ʒə-, -də dʒə-/; Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁi.u dʒi ʒɐˈnejɾu];River of January), or simply Rio, is the second-largest city in Brazil, the sixth-largest city in the Americas, and the world's thirty-ninth largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, the second most populous metropolitan area in Brazil, the seventh-most populous in the Americas, and the twenty-third largest in the world. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape.

Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. Later, in 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, and future King João VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

DYK

DYK, Dyk or Did you know may refer to:

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Pedro

Pedro (alternate archaic spelling Pêro) is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for Peter.

The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning "son of Peter" (compare with the English surname Peterson) is Pérez in Spanish, and Peres in Galician and Portuguese, Pires also in Portuguese, and Peiris in coastal area of Sri Lanka (where it originated from the Portuguese version), with all ultimately meaning "son of Pêro".

The name Pedro is derived via the Latin word "petra", from the Greek word "η πετρα" meaning "stone, rock".

The name Peter itself is a translation of the Aramaic Kephas or Cephas meaning "stone".

Pedro may refer to:

Notable people named Pedro

Monarchs

Rafael

Rafael may refer to:

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