Rio de Janeiro questions

The Portuguese were the Europeans who encountered Guanabara Bay on January 1,1502. They took it for a large river, which they named "Rio de Janeiro" ("January River"). Later it was discovered, that the presumed river was in fact a gulf, but the name remained.

Footvolley was created in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach as a means for football players to be able to touch the ball without violating the formal football ban in 1965. Essentially footvolley is beach volleyball except players are not allowed to use their hands and a football replaces the volleyball. The game is similar to (and often confused with) futnet, a game with similar rules played on a tennis court.

On November 29,1807, Braganza royal family and its court of nearly 15,000 people escaped from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, shortly before Napoleonic forces invaded Lisbon. For thirteen years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.