Brazil observes its Discovery Day on April 22 each year, commemorating the discovery of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500.

There are several theories regarding how Brazil was discovered, but the widely accepted theory asserts that Portuguese navigator and explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral was the first European to set foot on the land now known as Brazil. In 1494, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas that gave the Portuguese Empire rights to the land that would become Brazil.

In 1500, King Manuel I of Portugal assembled the Second Portuguese India Armada and placed it under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral. Cabral's expedition set out from the Tagus on March 9, 1500. On March 22, Cabral's fleet reached Cape Verde and headed southwest from there. After nearly a month of sailing, the armada noticed the first indications of land. On April 22, Cabral sighted the Brazilian coast and landed in Porto Seguro.

He named the newly discovered land Ilha de Vera Crus (Island of the True Cross) because he thought it was an island. On completion of the 400 years of the Discovery of Brazil, post Brazil issued a set of four commemorative stamps ranging with the denominations of 100 reis, 200 reis, 500 reis and 700 reis. The stamps show various stages of the discovery.

Image Courtesy: https://colnect.com and https://en.wikipedia.org

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