Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first lump of aluminium was produced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. This initial sample looked so much like tin that Ørsted initially mistook it for a different metal entirely.
American engineer Charles Martin Hall and French engineer Paul Héroult independently discovered the method to produce aluminium cheaply on the 26th of July 1886. This breakthrough utilized electrolysis to dissolve alumina in molten cryolite and drastically reduced production costs.
The radioactive isotope aluminium-26 has a half-life of 717,000 years. This isotope was present in the interstellar medium from which the Solar System formed but has since decayed completely.
The aluminium can was invented in 1956 and employed as storage for drinks in 1958. This invention became a symbol of the metal's ubiquity in modern life.
The 1988 Camelford water pollution incident involved drinking water being contaminated with aluminium sulfate for several weeks. This event concluded in 2013 to be unlikely to have caused long-term health problems.
The recycling of aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to produce aluminium from ore. This efficiency makes recycling a critical component of the industry's sustainability efforts.