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| 1970, June 21 |
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| Brazil won an unprecedented third World Cup in soccer (Brazil had also won in 1958 and 1962), boosting the government's campaign to make Brazil a world power. Soccer star Pelé emerged as an informal spokesman for the regime. | 1 |
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| 1973–74 |
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| The jump in oil prices and antidumping laws abroad combined to devastate the economy. Unemployment soared; despite gains for some urban groups, malnutrition and disease were widespread. The period also saw expansion of peasant agriculture and ranching in the Amazon basin, devastating large portions of the rain forest and threatening remaining indigenous groups. | 2 |
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| 1974, Jan. 15 |
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| Gen. Ernesto Geisel was elected president. He initiated some intermittent relaxation of authoritarian rule. Torture and imprisonment remained tools of the regime. | 3 |
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| Oct. 15 |
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| The Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the legal opposition, won 62 percent of the popular vote in elections for Congress, giving it a majority in the Senate. | 4 |
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