Portuguese colonization of the Americas on 22 April, Cabral landed on the coast, in Porto Seguro. Believing the land to be an island, he named it Ilha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross). The previous expedition of Vasco da Gama to India already recorded several signs of land near its western open Atlantic Ocean route, in 1497. It has also been suggested that Duarte Pacheco Pereira may have discovered the coasts of Brazil in 1498, possible its northeast, but the exact area of the expedition and the explored regions remain unclear. On the other hand, some historians have suggested that the Portuguese may
Portugal at the Paralympics European countries- has never taken part in the Winter Games. Portuguese athletes have won a total of 92 Paralympic medals, of which 25 gold, 30 silver and 37 bronze. As of 2010, Portugal ranks thirty-sixth on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table. The country's best performance came in 2000, when it won 15 medals (of which 6 gold) and ranked 26th. Portugal at the Paralympics Portugal made its Paralympic Games début at the 1972 Summer Paralympics (two years before the Carnation Revolution), where it was represented solely by a men's team in wheelchair basketball. They were eliminated at the preliminary