• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?

Facts on topics related to Azores

Madeira

• although English author Mackenzie Bell was trained in law at Cambridge University, he chose to study abroad and lived in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Madeira?
• the English explorer Robert Machin, who has been credited with discovering the island of Madeira, may never have existed?

Saint Helena

• Ascension Island was annexed in 1815 by the British crew of HMS Peruvian and HMS Zenobia so as to deny the French from using it as a base to rescue Napoleon from Saint Helena?
• the whorl snail Nesopupa turtoni, previously known only as a fossil, was discovered alive in 2003 in the Prosperous Bay Plain area of Saint Helena?

Portugal

• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?
• Angola gained its independence from Portugal through the Alvor Agreement?
• Eça de Queirós, one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language, was born in Praça do Almada, the civic center of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal?
• Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
• Portugal was taken to court over its failure to implement EU directives regarding its water supply and sanitation systems?
• Portuguese Josefa de Óbidos was one of the few women dedicated to painting (pictured: still life by her) in the Baroque era?
• Portuguese architect Mateus Fernandes is best known for his Manueline-style work at the Monastery of Batalha?
• Portuguese soldier and explorer Francisco Barreto led an expedition to Monomotapa in search of legendary gold mines, but died along the way from tropical diseases, as did many of his men?
• Ulysses S. Grant awarded Bolama to Portugal, who made it the first capital of Portuguese Guinea?
• Arthur Raikes was a British army officer but received honours from Zanzibar, Austria and Portugal?

Madagascar

• crayfish of the Madagascan genus Astacoides have fewer gills than any other crayfish?
• France's Madagascar expedition of 1883 (bombing action pictured) was triggered by the will to remove British economic and religious influence from the island of Madagascar?
• lemurs (pictured) are primates that evolved and diversified on the island of Madagascar after arriving there at least 56 million years ago on a raft of vegetation?
• Madagascar's unique wildlife, such as the Red-bellied Lemur, is one of the country's main tourist attractions?
• Claire's Mouse Lemur is a newly described species of primate that only lives on Nosy Bé, an island near Madagascar?
• Cyclone Elita in January 2004 crossed Madagascar three times, an unusual event but not unprecedented?
• Didiereaceae is a family of cactus-like flowering plants that make up the spiny thickets of Madagascar?
• Jacques Rabemananjara, former Vice President of Madagascar, was also an important negritude poet and playwright?
• Jean Ralaimongo came to prominence in 1929 after 3,000 demonstrated following speeches in a cinema in Madagascar?
• Joseph-François Lambert was a French adventurer who tried to overthrow the "Mad Queen" Ranavalona I of Madagascar?

Crimea

• during World War II, more than 10,000 Soviet soldiers and civilians, cut off from the mainland, resisted for 170 days in the Adzhimushkay quarries in Crimea?
• in 1346, the Black Plague (illustration pictured) infected the first Europeans in the Crimea in what has been called one of the worst biological attacks in the history of warfare?
• the Romanian poet Mehmet Niyazi, a major figure in Crimean Tatar literature, was expelled from Crimea three times during his lifetime?
• the Girays of Crimea were regarded as the second family of the Ottoman Empire after the House of Ottoman?
• the Swallow's Nest (pictured), constructed in 1911-1912 and located on top of a 40 meter cliff in Crimea, Ukraine, is a medieval-type castle which has survived an earthquake measuring 6-7 on the Richter scale?
• the British wrecked the engines of the Russian battleship Evstafi during 22–24 April 1919 when they left the Crimea to prevent the advancing Bolsheviks from using her against the White Russians?

Maldives

• fishing for giant clams in the Maldives was banned by the island's government in 1991, just one year after the fishery was established?
• Indo-Maldivian relations grew stronger after India responded to Maldives' request for help and thwarted a militant plot to overthrow the government in 1988?
• Ithaa iin Maldives is the world's first and only underwater restaurant?
• after being shipwrecked on Malé Atoll in 1973, Tony Hussein Hinde pioneered surfing in the Maldives, which was previously unknown in the country?

Brazil

• Brazil has been the world's largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years?
• Brazil has recently opened a commercial fishery targeting the Colares stingray, for export to Europe?
• Brazilian footballer Bobô won the 1988 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A before playing three games for the Brazil national team in 1989?
• Brazilian bull rider Adriano Moraes is one of only three men to ride ten out of ten bulls at the U.S. National Finals Rodeo?
• Brazilian director Humberto Mauro first became interested in film after buying a Kodak camera in 1923, and won the Brazilian film of the year award only 4 years later?
• Brazilian actress Carmen Silva was diagnosed with the same illness, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, as actor Oswaldo Louzada, who played her husband on the Brazilian telenovela, Mulheres Apaixonadas?
• Brazilian nursing assistant Edson Isidora Guimaraes is thought to have killed patients in a hospital in São Paolo because a funeral home was paying him $60 a time for the relatives' contact details?
• Carlos Minc, the current Brazilian Minister of Environment, was one of the founding members of the Green Party?
• Claude d'Abbeville was a Franciscan missionary who wrote in 1614 about the dispatch of Brazilian Tupinambá Indians to the French king Louis XIII?
• Delta, Minas Gerais in Brazil, despite having a population of 6,600, had no banks as of 2007?