Portuguese navigators discovered Rio de Janeiro.
On this day Januray 1 st, 1502, Rio de Janeiro is discovered by Gaspar de Lamos. He was credited by the Viscount of Santarém for having discovered it.
The name was given to the city’s original site by Portuguese navigators who arrived on January 1, 1502, and mistook the entrance of the bay for the mouth of a river (Rio is the Portuguese word for “river” and Janeiro the word for “January”).