Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 13, 2017
Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (1804–1875) was an army officer, politician, abolitionist and monarchist of the Empire of Brazil. For most of the 1820s, he was involved in the struggle for Brazilian independence and fought in the Cisplatine War. From 1835 to 1845, his native province of Rio Grande do Sul was engulfed in a secessionist rebellion, the Ragamuffin War, which he helped to suppress. In 1852, he led an army division during the Platine War, invading the Argentine Confederation and overthrowing its dictator. Porto Alegre was elected to the legislature of Rio Grande do Sul, and founded the provincial Progressive-Liberal Party—a coalition of Liberals like himself and some members of the Conservative Party. He later entered the lower house of the Brazilian parliament and was briefly Minister of War. After returning to the military as one of the chief Brazilian commanders during the Paraguayan War (1864), he became an active advocate for the abolition of slavery and a patron in the fields of literature and science. (Full article...)