Short answers, pulled from the story.
Eugene Burton Ely flew a Curtiss Pusher airplane off the deck of the armored cruiser Birmingham on the 14th of November 1910. This event marked the transition from tethered reconnaissance balloons to mobile air power at sea.
Japan commissioned the Hōshō aircraft carrier in 1922 as one of the earliest purpose-built fleet carriers developed by mid-1925s. The vessel represented a significant step forward after early trials prompted engineers to design vessels with flush decks and remove forward turrets.
The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor illustrated how concentrating six carriers in a single unit turned naval history about. No other nation had fielded anything comparable to this force concentration before that moment.
Royal Navy Captain Dennis Cambell invented the angled flight deck after World War II to accommodate higher speeds required by jet aircraft. This modification allowed simultaneous launch and recovery operations improving operational efficiency significantly.
As of 2024 there are fifty active aircraft carriers operated by fifteen navies worldwide. The United States maintains eleven large nuclear-powered CATOBAR fleet carriers each carrying approximately eighty fighters totaling deck space twice that of all other nations combined.