History
The civil government was transferred from Rio de Janeiro's Catete Palace to Brasília on April 21, 1960, which was then split off from Goiás (major part) and Minas Gerais. After the transfer, the municipality of Rio de Janeiro became the Estado da Guanabara (State of Guanabara), which existed from 1960 until 1975 when the State of Guanabara and the State of Rio de Janeiro merged and assumed the name of Rio de Janeiro State, having as capital the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Originally, the majority of the population consisted of "Candango" workers from other states who built the capital and federal government employees who were transferred to the new capital. The capital is a thoroughly planned city with designated areas for residence, businesses, schools, churches, etc. No streets have names, but are identified instead by letters and numbers arranged in a geographical system according to blocs (Q-Quadras) and sectors (S-Setor e.g.: SB - Setor Bancario or "Bank Section"). Originally built for up to one million inhabitants, the city now has more than twice that number. Due to its complex organization, the growth of the city itself has been slow. This has forced many to settle in neighboring cities around Brasília, which now house a significant percentage of the whole population.
Read more about this topic: Federal District (Brazil)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)