Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word mafia derives from the Sicilian adjective mafiusu, which roughly translates as "swagger" but can also mean "boldness" or "bravado." Scholar Diego Gambetta noted that in 19th-century Sicily, the masculine form signified "fearless," "enterprising," and "proud," while the feminine form, mafiusa, meant "beautiful" or "attractive."
Giuseppe Esposito was the first known Mafia member to immigrate to the United States. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners along with the chancellor and vice-chancellor of a Sicilian province, and he was arrested in New Orleans in 1881 and extradited to Italy.
Lucky Luciano created The Commission in 1931 as an alternative to the previous model of a single boss of all bosses. Rather than one leader holding absolute power, the bosses of the most powerful families would have equal say and vote on important matters, overseeing the National Crime Syndicate.
The Valachi hearings took place in October 1963 before Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Genovese crime family soldier Joe Valachi became the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to publicly acknowledge its existence, naming members and major crime families and providing details of Mafia history, operations, and rituals. He is credited with popularizing the term cosa nostra.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act became federal law in 1970, allowing prosecutors to attack entire criminal organizations rather than replaceable individuals. Between 1981 and 1992-23 bosses from around the country were convicted under the law, and over 1,000 crime family figures were convicted by 1990.
The Apalachin meeting was a summit of the American Mafia held on the 14th of November, 1957, at the home of mobster Joseph Barbara at 625 McFall Road in Apalachin, New York. Police set up roadblocks and raided the meeting; more than 60 underworld bosses were detained and indicted. One of its most significant outcomes was confirming the existence of a nationwide criminal conspiracy, which FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had long refused to acknowledge.