Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India of the "São Gabriel" and its sister ship, the "São Rafael" that were used by Vasco da Gama to sail past the Cape of Good Hope and continue to India. One of the sailors, Bartolomeu Dias passed the southernmost point of Africa known as the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. He declared it possible to travel to India by going around Africa. The Portuguese were then able to make an immense profit by using their own ships to retrieve the spices. This global expedition was launched on 8 July 1497. It concluded two years later with the entry of
Time in Portugal Cavaco Silva government, by Decree-Law 124/92, mainland Portugal officially changed its time zone from WET () to CET ().<ref name="Decree-Law 124/92"> Decree-Law 124/92, 2 July 1992 (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 May 2013.</ref> Differently from the 1966 move to CET, this time DST was to be observed, as CEST (), from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in September. The measure, approved without the consultation of Lisbon Observatory, had the intention of promoting energy savings, in order that “Portugal follow, in work schedules, the countries with which it maintains more frequent contacts” (DL 124/92) and so promoting economic