• the Confederation of the Equator was a short-lived state established in northeastern Brazil during her struggle for independence from Portugal?
• the Bassein Fort was at the centre of Portuguese operations in India during the 16th century?
• the Diu Fort (pictured) in India was voted one of seven wonders of Portuguese colonialism in an opinion poll in Portugal?
• the masseira is a form of agriculture in sand dunes practiced solely in Northern Portugal?
• the Monastery of Alcobaça, founded in 1153, includes the first Gothic buildings built in Portugal?
• the Angolan War of Independence lasted from 1961 until 1989, even though Portugal left Angola in 1975?
• the Almond Blossom Cross Country was created by the District of Faro and the Portuguese tourist board to promote sport and tourism in the area?
• the Gothic Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (pictured) in Coimbra, Portugal, stayed abandoned under mud and water for over 300 years before it was rescued in an archaeological intervention?
• the Monastery of Jesus in Setúbal, Portugal, the first building associated with the Manueline style, was built by Diogo Boitac?
• the Portuguese film Ala-Arriba! features real-life fishermen from Póvoa de Varzim in starring roles?
• the Portuguese village Cacela Velha was once the site of the Medina of Qast’alla Daraj, an Islamic town dating back to the 10th century?
• the Pernambucan Revolt of 1817 was a conflict to establish independence for the current Brazilian state of Pernambuco from Portugal?
• the Portuguese Fireplace war memorial is the remains of a camp where Portuguese labourers helped the Canadian Forestry Corps in felling timber during World War I?
• the tick Ornithodoros erraticus spreads the African swine fever virus in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)?
• three-time Olympian Albertina Dias was the first Portuguese woman to win at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships?
• under the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau, Communist China would guarantee complete autonomy and democratic self-government in Macau up to 2049?
• within the Special Economic Zone SEEPZ, Mumbai lies an abandoned Portuguese church built in 1579?
• the real objective of the 1732 Treaty of Three Black Eagles, where Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to support the Portuguese Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém in elections to the Polish throne, was to create a rift between France and Prussia?
• the façade of the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso (pictured) in Porto, Portugal, is covered in approximately 11,000 azulejos?
• the Roman Temple of Évora (pictured) in Portugal, was used as a butcher shop for nearly 500 years and thus survived destruction?
• the Siglas Poveiras are a proto-writing system inherited from the Vikings and have been used for more than a thousand years by the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal?
• the briefly popular "I'm Backing Britain" campaign in 1968 suffered embarrassment when a number of t-shirts bearing the slogan were found to be made in Portugal?
• the destruction of over 150 million reis-worth of Nyassa Company stamps was ordered in 1895 by the Portuguese government because the stamps had been printed in England and not Portugal?
• the contemporary artist Walenty Pytel was commissioned to create four 45-meter steel eagles for Portuguese football club Benfica?
• the 1510 conquest of Goa by the Portuguese Governor Albuquerque was accomplished with the help of the Hindus against a Muslim army?
• 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?
• Fort Anjediva (pictured) built on Anjadip Island, under the jurisdiction of Goa, India, formerly under Portuguese rule, is in the vicinity of the Church of Our Lady of Springs built in 1505 AD?
• Portuguese architect Mateus Fernandes is best known for his Manueline-style work at the Monastery of Batalha?
• Portuguese Josefa de Óbidos was one of the few women dedicated to painting (pictured: still life by her) in the Baroque era?
• 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?
• Francisco Serrão, one of the Portuguese vessel commanders sent by Afonso de Albuquerque to the 'Spice Islands', took a Javanese woman as his wife when his ship berthed at Gresik?
• Luiz Francisco Rebello was a founder of two of the most important experimental theatrical groups in Portugal in the postwar period?
• in the 1508 Battle of Chaul in India, a Mamluk-Gujarati fleet defeated a Portuguese fleet under Lourenço de Almeida?
• in the Ottoman expedition to Aceh starting in 1565, the Ottoman Empire provided military support to Aceh (modern Indonesia) against the Portuguese?
• in the siege of Cannanore (1507) in India, a Portuguese garrison of 150 resisted for four months against 60,000 attackers?
• in the Siege of Diu in 1538 an Ottoman fleet equipped with 130 cannons attempted to eliminate the Portuguese from the harbour of Diu in India?
• in 1804, the frigate Apollo and forty merchant ships in her convoy were wrecked off Portugal, the result of a single badly adjusted compass?
• following the Liberal Wars, the owner of Fonseca Guimaraens had to flee Portugal in an empty Port wine barrel because of his support of liberal reforms?
• Manuel Pinho was forced to resign as Portugal's Minister of Economy and Innovation after making a gesture towards an opposition member during a session of parliament?
• Michael Annals designed the sets for productions of Macbeth in the Soviet Union and in Portugal?
• Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India was a scientific text published in Goa in 1563 that included the first published verses by Luís de Camões, Portugal's national poet?
• a lost Roman villa was discovered in 1992 when a bulldozer remodeled the sand on a beach at the Rio Alto tourist area (pictured) in 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?

Facts on topics related to Portugal

East Timor

• tais weaving in East Timor is performed solely by women, using techniques passed down through generations in an oral tradition?

Greece

• German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia?
• Greek composer Phivos has written songs for artists including Keti Garbi, Angela Dimitriou, Manto, Thanos Kalliris, and, most successfully, Despina Vandi?
• Greek–Polish singer Eleni Tzoka has been awarded the Saint Rita of Cascia prize for the act of mercy towards the killer of her young daughter?
• Nigeria, which contains what was once the Kingdom of Benin, has repeatedly called for the U.K.'s return of the Benin Bronzes, in a situation similar to Greece's petition for the return of the Elgin Marbles?
• Norwegian chemist Alexis Pappas was born in London to Greek parents who fled from Belgium to England during World War I?
• Russian Hussar Alexander Bulatovich (pictured) was a military aide to Ethiopian ruler Menelek II, a hieromonk in Greece, and leader of a banned religious movement?
• Stylianos Pattakos, a principal of the 21 April 1967 coup in Greece, after his conviction at the Greek junta trials, enjoyed amenities such as a pond with 21 goldfish while imprisoned?
• American statesman John Milledge named Athens, Georgia, the city surrounding the University of Georgia, after Athens, Greece, the city of Plato's Academy?
• Emmanouil Argyropoulos (pictured), the first Greek aviator to fly over his country, was also the first casualty suffered by Greek military aviation one year later during the Balkan Wars?
• Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù‎, founded in 1720, was the first modern opera theatre in Greece?

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?

Germany

• 19th century Polish general Ludwik Mierosławski led revolutionaries in Poland, Germany and Italy?
• U.S. Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen received the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which contained an understanding between Hitler and Stalin to split Central Europe, from German diplomat Hans von Herwarth?
• the author of the term Third Reich predicted that "Germany might perish because of the Third Reich dream"?
• Church of Scientology International official Leisa Goodman went on a six-month mission to investigate the treatment of Scientologists in Germany?
• communist activist Franz Jacob organized one of the largest resistance groups in Germany during World War II?
• French Major General René Cogny, who later commanded French forces during the First Indochina War, was captured in June 1940 by the German army, and had to escape by crawling naked through a drainpipe?
• French protests caused the Russians to award the contract for the Gangut-class battleship to a Russian firm rather than the German winner of the 1908 international design contest?
• Gauleiter of Tyrol and Vorarlberg Franz Hofer arranged the surrender of the troops under his command with an American sergeant, and a Jewish emigrant from Germany, Fred Mayer?
• German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia?
• German bass Hans Herbert Fiedler sang the role of Moses in the original 1954 production of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron?

Poland

• "Spieprzaj dziadu!" (Polish for "Piss off, old man!"), said by current Polish President Lech Kaczynski, has become one of the most famous phrases in modern Poland?
• 19th century Polish general Ludwik Mierosławski led revolutionaries in Poland, Germany and Italy?
• abrasion has destroyed the 14th century Church in Trzęsacz, Poland, near the Baltic Sea, except for part of its southern wall?
• French-born artist Jan Piotr Norblin is famous in Poland for illustrating many important historical moments of the last years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and is considered one of the most important painters of the Polish Enlightenment?
• German socialist politician Siegmund Glücksmann initiated the first socialist protests against the Piłsudski government in Poland?
• Greek–Polish singer Eleni Tzoka has been awarded the Saint Rita of Cascia prize for the act of mercy towards the killer of her young daughter?
• Japan and Poland are the world's largest krill fishing nations since Russia abandoned its operations in 1993?
• neoclassical Staszic Palace in Warsaw was temporarily given a Russo-Byzantine redesign upon Poland's partition?
• Norwegian professor of bacteriology Sverre Dick Henriksen was an honorary member of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, despite having never worked in Poland?
• Poland's Antoni Gawryłkiewicz, a recipient of the Righteous among the Nations medal, signed his Yad Vashem deposition in Hebrew, a language he did not understand?

Norway

• 19th-century politician Søren Jaabæk (pictured) is the longest-serving member of parliament in the history of Norway?
• 22-year-old ski jumper Anette Sagen played the mother of 70-year-old Bård Owe in the Norwegian movie O' Horten?
• 29 Norwegian civilians were shot in reprisal by the Nazi regime in Norway following the Norwegian resistance's assassination of police chief Karl Marthinsen in February of 1945?
• television chef Ingrid Espelid Hovig is considered the "culinary mother" of Norway?
• 1993 Eurovision Song Contest winner Niamh Kavanagh overcame voice and dress problems to make her return in the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway?
• Prince Carl of Denmark landed at Vippetangen when he arrived in Norway to assume the throne in 1905?
• Henrich Krummedige's 1502 murder of Knut Alvsson ended the feud started by their fathers, Hartvig Krummedige and Alv Knutsson, as well as Knut's leadership of the rebellion against King Hans' rule over Norway?
• musicologist Olav Gurvin co-edited the first Norwegian music encyclopedia in 1949?
• Norway's first tank was a Landsverk L-120 with an improvised turret and make-shift armour?
• Norway applied thrice to join the European Union, but failed to accede all three times?

Netherlands

• arson was suspected when the last original boô (pictured), a building where a farmer rested when grazing cattle far from a village, burned down in the Netherlands?
• Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of the Australian continent, is named after the Dutch galleon Leeuwin?
• jazz singer Ilse Huizinga is known in the Netherlands as the First Lady of Jazz?
• two Dutch professors who lost an article written by Samuel Iperusz Wiselius were nonetheless to join him in forming the Batavian Republic in the Netherlands?
• landscape architecture firm West 8 designed the so-called "Reptile Bridge" between Leidsche Rijn and Utrecht in the Netherlands?
• Dutch abstract artist Jules de Goede described his art by saying "A reflection of the world like it visually appears is not quite enough ... I try to show what is invisible"?
• Dutch admiral Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer (1604–1655) kept Maarten Tromp's standard raised to maintain morale after the latter died in the Battle of Scheveningen in 1653?
• Dutch cricketer Maurits van Nierop had been recalled to the Netherlands national cricket team squad for the first time in two years just two weeks before he died?
• Dutch magician Fred Kaps was the only magician to win the magic world championship three times?
  
• Dutch mannerist painter Cornelis Ketel began to paint with his toes towards the end of a successful career as a portraitist, (example, right) in Elizabethan London and Amsterdam?

Iceland

• Iceland's entry in the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, "Minn Hinsti Dans", was performed by a former drag queen?
• Iceland and India established diplomatic relations in 1972?
• Iceland leads the world in renewable energy and is the first country to supply all electricity from renewable sources?
• Iceland was the first country to recognize Lithuania's re-established independence in 1991?
• Icelandic operatic soprano Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir, better known as Diddú, began her singing career in the 1970s with a folk and pop group?
• Icelandic tenor Garðar Thór Cortes was voted sexiest man in Iceland twice in one year in separate polls?
• Labour Party politician Hugh Brown was a British negotiator with Iceland during the third Cod War in the 1970s?
• Árni Magnússon, who assembled the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection, would do whatever it took to acquire an Icelandic book or manuscript?
• Beer Day in Iceland celebrates the end of prohibition of beer on 1 March 1989, though wine and other spirits had been legal since 1935?
• Iceland–Norway relations date back to Norwegian colonization of Iceland in the ninth century?

Portuguese language

• Hindi, Bengali, and Portuguese have all recently been proposed as official languages of the United Nations?
• President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently launched TV Brasil Internacional, a Portuguese language television station aimed at 49 African nations?
• radio station KLBS broadcasts a Portuguese-language world music format to California's San Joaquin Valley?
• Quốc ngữ, the Vietnamese alphabet in general use today, was established by the 1651 trilingual Latin-Portuguese-Vietnamese dictionary Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum?
• the earliest Portuguese description of Malaysia, Tomé Pires's Suma Oriental, lay unpublished and presumed lost in an archive until 1944?