Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics

Castelo is a region in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but not officially recognized as a neighborhood, and officially forming part of the Centro neighborhood. It is generally considered to be located in the region between Avenida Rio Branco, the Santos Dumont Airport and Praça Quinze de Novembro. The area derives its name from the former Morro do Castelo in that location, which was demolished by water jets in the 1920s. As most of the buildings in the area were designed and built in the first half of the twentieth century, after the demolition of Morro do Castelo (Castle Hill) in 1921, the region became home to a large collection of Art Deco buildings. Art Deco was the prevalent architecture style in Rio de Janeiro at that time.

Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) (Portuguese pronunciation: [akadeˈmiɐ bɾaziˈlejɾɐ dʒi ˈletɾɐs] (listen) English: Brazilian Academy of Letters) is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the by-laws being passed on January 28, 1897. On July 20 of the same year, the academy started its operation. According to its statutes, it is the pre-eminent Portuguese council for matters pertaining to the Portuguese language. The academy is considered the foremost institution devoted to the Portuguese language in Brazil. Its prestige and technical qualification gives it paramount authority in Brazilian Portuguese, even though it is not a public institution and no law grants it oversight over the language. The academy's main publication in this field is the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language (Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa) which has five editions. The Vocabulary is prepared by the academy's Commission on Lexicology and Lexicography. If a word is not included in the Vocabulary, it is considered not to exist as a correct word in Brazilian Portuguese. Since its beginning and to this day, the academy is composed of 40 members, known as the "immortals". These members are chosen from among citizens of Brazil who have published works or books with recognized literary value. The position of "immortal" is awarded for the lifetime. New members are admitted by a vote of the academy members when one of the "chairs" become vacant. The chairs are numbered and each has a Patron: the Patrons are 40 great Brazilian writers that were already dead when the academy was founded; the names of the Patrons were chosen by the Founders as to honour them post mortem by assigning patronage over a chair. Thus, each chair is associated with its current holder, her or his predecessors, the original Founder who occupied it in the first place, and also with a Patron. The academicians use formal gala gilded uniforms with a sword (the uniform is called "fardão") when participating in official meetings at the academy. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are not binding on either the public or the government.

Edifício Santos Dumont is an office skyscraper with a circular footprint located in the Centro neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The building, inaugurated in 1975, has a height of 141 meters and has 45 floors.

The Gustavo Capanema Palace (in Portuguese, Palácio Gustavo Capanema), also known architecturally as the Ministry of Education and Health Building, is a government office building in the Centro district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the first modernist project in Brazil, it is historically important to the architectural development of Modernism in Brazil and has been placed on Brazil's UNESCO tentative list.

The National Historical Museum (Portuguese: Museu Histórico Nacional) of Brazil was created in 1922, and possesses over 287,000 items, including the largest numismatic collection of Latin America. The architectural complex that houses the museum was built in 1603 as the St. James of Mercy Fort; earlier structures date back to 1567, erected by order of King Sebastian I of Portugal. In 1693, the Calaboose Prison, for slaves, was built. In 1762, the Casa do Trem was added as a depot of weapons and ammunition. The last additions are the War Arsenal (1764) and the Barracks (1835).

The Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil (English: National Library of Brazil) is the depository of the bibliographic and documentary heritage of Brazil. It is located in Rio de Janeiro, the capital city of Brazil from 1822 to 1960, more specifically at Cinelândia square. The largest library in Latin America and the 7th largest in the world, its collections include about 9 million items. It organized the first library science courses in Latin America and its staff has led the modernization of library services, including the development of online databases.

The March of the One Hundred Thousand (Portuguese: Passeata dos Cem Mil) was a manifestation of popular protest against the Military dictatorship in Brazil, which occurred on June 26, 1968 in Rio de Janeiro, organized by the student movement and with the participation of artists, intellectuals and other sectors of Brazilian society.

The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA; Portuguese for National Museum of Fine Arts) is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938 by President Getúlio Vargas. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in the early 19th century, when King John VI brought along with him part of the Portuguese Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is one of the most important cultural institutions of the country, as well as the most important museum of Brazilian art, particularly rich in 19th-century paintings and sculptures. The collection includes more than 20,000 pieces, among paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, of Brazilian and international artists, ranging from High Middle Ages to contemporary art. It also includes smaller assemblages of decorative arts, folk and African art. The museum library has a collection of about 19,000 titles. The building was listed as Brazilian national heritage in 1973.

Cinelândia is the popular name of a major public square in the centre of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its official name is Praça Floriano Peixoto, in honour of the second president of Brazil, Floriano Peixoto.

Cinelândia Station (Portuguese: Estação Cinelândia) is a station on the Rio de Janeiro Metro that services the Praça Marechal Floriano (commonly known as Cinelândia) public square in the Centro neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The station is located on the site of the former Monroe Palace, which served as home to Brazil's Senate from the 1930s to 1960s.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio 2012, Rio+20 (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁi.u ˈmajʒ ˈvĩtʃi]), or Earth Summit 2012 was the third international conference on sustainable development aimed at reconciling the economic and environmental goals of the global community. Hosted by Brazil in Rio de Janeiro from 13 to 22 June 2012, Rio+20 was a 20-year follow-up to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in the same city, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. The ten-day mega-summit, which culminated in a three-day high-level UN conference, was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and included participation from 192 UN member states – including 57 Heads of State and 31 Heads of Government, private sector companies, NGOs and other groups. The decision to hold the conference was made by UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/236 on 24 December 2009. It was intended to be a high-level conference, including heads of state and government or other representatives and resulting in a focused political document designed to shape global environmental policy.During the final three days of the Conference, from 20 to 22 June 2012, world leaders and representatives met for intense meetings which culminated in finalizing the non-binding document, "The Future We Want", which opens with: "We the Heads of State and Government and high-level representatives, having met at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 20 to 22 June 2012, with the full participation of civil society, renew our commitment to sustainable development and to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations."

The 1710 Battle of Rio de Janeiro was a failed raid by a French privateering fleet on the Portuguese colonial city of Rio de Janeiro in August 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession. The raid was a complete failure; its commander, Jean-François Duclerc, and more than 600 men were captured. French anger over the Portuguese failure to properly hold, release, or exchange the prisoners contributed to a second, successful raid, the following year. Duclerc was assassinated while in captivity in March 1711; his killers (and their reason for killing him) are unknown.