Terceira is the location of the Azores' oldest city, Angra do Heroísmo, the historical capital of the archipelago and UNESCO World Heritage Site; the seat of the judicial system (Supreme Court); and the main insular Portuguese Air Force base, Base Aérea nº 4 at Lajes, with a United States Air Force detachment.

Terceira island has two main sea ports, one at Angra do Heroísmo and the other at Praia da Vitória, and a commercial airport integrated with the flight operations at Base Aérea nº 4.

Frutuoso also affirmed that: ...that ancient settlers of the island of Terceira, that were the first to settle in a band to the north, where they call Quatro Ribeiras, where now the parish of Santa Beatriz is located, and where the first church existed on the island, but were few settlers remained due to difficult access and bad port.The first settlement occurred in Quatro Ribeiras, in the locality of Portalegre,[5] where a small chapel was raised for the invocation of Santa Ana.

A few years later, Bruges moved his residence to Praia, began construction on the Matriz Church in 1456, and administered the Captaincy of the island from this location (around 1460), until he mysteriously disappeared in 1474, on another of his trips between the colony and the continent.

[4] Following his disappearance, the Infanta D. Beatriz, in the name of her son the Infante D. Diogo (who inherited the islands of Terceira and Graciosa following the death D. Fernando, the adopted son of the Infante D. Henrique) divided the island of Terceira into two captaincies: Angra (which was given to João Vaz Corte Real) and Praia (which was given to Álvaro Martins Homem).

With a fleet to ninety-six ships and 9,500 men (as well as a garrison of 2,000 on Sao Miguel) the Marquis was able to defeat the forces of D. António after one day's fighting.

Although French and English soldiers on the island were allowed to retire unharmed, D. Antonio and a handful of his supporters were lucky to escape with their lives.

An English expedition fleet under the Earl of Cumberland in 1589, as part of the Azores Voyage of 1589 into Angra Bay, attacked several harbouring Spanish and Portuguese ships and was able to sink or capture five.

This was not lost on the Spanish settlers in Angra do Heroísmo, who had become a privileged class during the Union, and which made it difficult for them to remain after 1640, when Portuguese sovereignty was restored.

In 1832, Pedro I (former King and regent of Queen Maria) arrived in the Azores to form a government-in-opposition to the absolutionist regime in Lisbon, presided by the Marques of Palmela, and supported by Azoreans Mouzinho da Silveira and Almeida Garrett that developed many important reforms.

[8] On 24 August 2001, Terceira made the news as Air Transat Flight 236 managed to land at Lajes Field after running out of fuel in mid-air.

On 15 January 2016, then Tropical Storm Alex made an unprecedented landfall on the island with sustained winds reaching 65 miles per hour.

Radiocarbon dating of eruptive units, in support of geologic mapping, has improved the known chronology of Middle to Late Pleistocene and Holocene volcanic activity on the island of Terceira, Azores, defining the east-to-west progression in stratovolcano growth.

During the 1614 event, whose epicenter was located along the Lajes fault eight kilometres (5.0 miles) offshore, recorded magnitudes for the earthquake were between 5.8 and 6.3 on the Richter scale (Wells and Coppersmith,1994).

This feature is marked by trachyte domes and crosses from the coast at Ponta do Queimado (from the historical basin of Serreta) to the cliffs, faults, basaltic lava and fissural eruptions near the center of the island.

Here, an eruption of basaltic lava in shallow water formed the tuff cone of Monte Brasil, which protects and shelters the harbor of the island's capital.

Much of the interior of the island is a nature reserve; from the heights of the Serra do Cume to the slopes of Santa Bárbara, there are several paths along the patchwork of small farms, stonewalls and forests.

Administratively, Terceira is divided (along an irregular diagonal frontier from north-northwest to south-southeast) into two municipalities: Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória.

Apart from the uninhabited areas at the center of the island, the northwestern and portions of the western coast are sparsely populated, apart from small agglomerations of homes along the roadways.

The island has two main sea ports, one at Angra do Heroísmo and the other at Praia da Vitória, and a commercial airport integrated with the flight operations at Base Aérea nº 4 (in the community of Lajes).

Popular since the 16th century, the "touradas à corda" (literally bullfights-by-rope) are held by local Terceiran villagers from April/May to late September.

The other end of the rope are held by eight "pastores", men dressed in traditional garb (white shirts, grey pants and a black hat), who control the animal from a distance (providing some sense of security).

Courageous people then attempt to provoke the animal and get as close to it while avoiding being gored (resulting in the occasional injury or mayhem).