Attempted assassination of Pedro II of Brazil

Pedro was returning by carriage to the Imperial Palace after attending a concert by Italian violinist Giulietta Dionesi [pt] at the Teatro Sant'Anna (today the Carlos Gomes Theatre). As the carriage passed the Maison Moderne restaurant in Constituição Square, between the Espírito Santo Street (now Pedro I Street) and Travessa da Barreira (now Silva Jardim Street), it was fired upon by a 20-year-old Portuguese immigrant and unemployed clerk named Adriano Augusto do Valle. The shots missed and the carriage continued along Rua da Carioca to the palace.^[2][3]

Do Valle was later arrested in a bar where he had been drunkenly boasting that he had shot at Pedro and would do it again.^[1]

During the attack do Valle shouted praise for the republic,^{[further explanation needed]} but he had no connection with the Brazilian republican movement.^[4] He died 30 March 1903 of tuberculosis, aged 36, in the municipality of Miracema, northwest of the state of Rio de Janeiro, and was buried in the public cemetery of Miracema.

The attack was condemned by the leader of the Republican Party, Quintino Bocaiuva, in the newspaper O Paiz [pt], as well as by other republican press organizations such as Gazeta da Tarde [pt] and República Brazileira. The incident spurred controversy around immigration to Brazil, which grew during the 1880s. Because do Valle was Portuguese, the Portuguese ambassador to Brazil, Nogueira Soares, called a meeting to discuss the attack. Portuguese associations released a note of repudiation of the attack, and the board of the Portuguese Literary Lyceum [pt] announced its total disagreement with the act.^[3]

• Fialho, Anfriso. História da fundação da República no Brasil (in Portuguese).
• Gomes, Laurentino (2013). 1889: Como um imperador cansado, um marechal vaidoso e um professor injustiçado contribuíram para o fim da Monarquia e a Proclamação da República no Brasil (in Portuguese). Globo Livros.