On April 30, 1981, during a May Day music concert, Riocentro was the target of a terrorist attack by hardliner members of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985).
[1][2][3] Sergeant Guilherme Pereira do Rosário and then-Captain Wilson Dias Machado, nowadays a Colonel, were responsible for detonating two bombs at the venue.
This theory had no support at the time of the event and nowadays there is strong evidence that the attack was planned by the hardline sector of the government to convince the moderate sector that the left-wing urban guerrilla was still active and that a new wave of political repression was required.
When Rio was bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics which it won in October 2009, four of its six pavilions were proposed as venues.
During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Riocentro was utilised as the headquarters of the International Broadcast Centre (IBC).