[a] In an interview for the daily newspaper Público, Sampaio said he recalled his parents "putting tapes on the windows, because it was feared that Hitler would come down that way [to Portugal]".

Sampaio enrolled at the YMCA, where he practiced boxing and swimming; he also attended piano lessons at the Peabody Institute and participated in its orchestra.

[4] He was in charge of the defense of the accused in famous cases such as the assault on Beja Barracks and those arrested during the Vigília da Capela do Rato [pt] protest.

[12] After the failed communist coup of 25 November 1975, Sampaio founded Intervenção Socialista (IS) (Socialist Intervention) in an attempt to unify the left but with little success.

[10] On 18 November 1988, Jorge Sampaio became a candidate for Secretary-General of the PS, and on 16 January 1989, after defeating Jaime Gama, he succeeded Vítor Constâncio, who resigned.

Sampaio led the PS until 1992, when António Guterres defeated him by winning the primaries, after being presented as an alternative following the party's poor results in the 1991 legislative election.

[4][10][12] Also in 1989, Sampaio was elected the 62nd Mayor of Lisbon with a left-wing coalition the PS led after winning 49.1% of the vote against PSD candidate Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

[17] On 13 April, Sampaio was admitted to Lisboan Santa Cruz hospital to undergo heart surgery and was discharged 12 days later.

[10][12] On 19 May 1996, during the 1996 Taça de Portugal Final at Estádio Nacional, a S. L. Benfica cheerleader launched a rocket that killed a Sporting CP fan.

[12] Upon becoming president in 1996, Sampaio and the government of António Guterres began to work on the independence of East Timor, which was then a province of Indonesia.

In Oslo in 1999, in a CNN debate on the situation in Timor with Nobel Peace Prize winners José Ramos-Horta and bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, Sampaio's intervention had international repercussions due to his confrontation with the Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Nugroho Wisnumurtio.

[4] After the resignation of Indonesia's President Suharto in 1998 and the succession of B. J. Habibie, Portuguese and international diplomacy led to the holding in East Timor of an independence referendum for the province.

[28] The plebescite was held on 30 August 1999[29] and was followed by a campaign of extreme violence and terror by pro-Indonesian militias, and Portugal put pressure on the international community, especially the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, to take a position.

[12] On 15 September 1999, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1264 was adopted and the International Force East Timor was established.

Instead of appointing the new leader of the PS Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues as head of government, after a round of consultations with the parliamentary parties, Sampaio dissolved the Assembly and called elections for March 2002.

Sampaio also stated Europe should commit itself more energetically to resolve the crisis in the Middle East, and that the Palestinians and Israelis should return to negotiations.

[39] In October 2003, Sampaio invited the presidents of Finland and Germany, and the soon-to-be EU members Hungary, Latvia, and Poland to Arraiolos to discuss the consequences of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and plans for a Constitution for Europe.

[40] In 2004, Sampaio refused to hold an early election following the resignation of Social Democratic Party Prime Minister Durão Barroso.

[47] In May 2006, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Sampaio as his first Special Envoy for the Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis.

[48] On 26 April 2007, new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated Sampaio as High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations,[49] a position he held until February 2013, when Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser succeeded him.

[51] From 2013, he led the Global Platform for Syrian Students to boost the academic training of young people in Syria after the outbreak of the country's civil war and refugee crisis.

The final destination was the Royal Riding Arena of the National Coach Museum, where the mortuary chapel was installed and his coffin was flanked with wreaths of red carnations.

[63] On Sunday 12 September, Sampaio's state funeral was held at Jerónimos Monastery and was attended by the highest national institutions, including UN Secretary-General and former Prime Minister António Guterres.

Also present were foreign leaders such as the King of Spain Felipe VI, the Prime Minister of Cape Verde Ulisses Correia e Silva, the President of the Parliament of East Timor Aniceto Guterres Lopes, and delegates of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.