Rio de Janeiro is a huge seaside city in Brazil famous for its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Rio de Janeiro was first visited in January 1502 by Portuguese explorers who believed the bay (now called Guanabara) was the mouth of a river. They name the area we Rio de Janeiro , river of January. The Portuguese were the first European explorers on the scene, but the French were the first settlers. In 1555, a French aristocrat named Nicholas Durande Villegagnon, sponsored by Henry IV founded a fort on an island in Guanabara bay. It was the beginning of a colony named French antarctic. Rio was capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1961 when the capital was transferred to Brasilia. Did you know that Brazil’s location near the equator makes it active area for lightning, which means Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer a 98 foot statue gets struck by lightning 2-4 times each year!!!