Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Grand Lodge of London and Westminster convened for a joint dinner on the 24th of June 1717 to establish a new regulatory body. Four existing lodges in England met at the Goose and Gridiron alehouse to form this first Grand Lodge.
The degrees of Freemasonry are the three grades of medieval craft guilds: Entered Apprentice, Journeyman or Fellow of the craft, and Master Mason. Candidates are progressively initiated into Freemasonry first in the degree of Entered Apprentice before being passed to the degree of Fellow Craft and raised to the degree of Master Mason.
A rival Grand Lodge formed on the 17th of July 1751 called itself the Antient Grand Lodge of England. They rejected changes that the Premiere Grand Lodge had adopted between 1730 and 1750 until the two bodies re-united on the 27th of December 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England.
More than 600 Papal pronouncements have been issued against Freemasonry since Pope Clement XII's In eminenti apostolatus on the 28th of April 1738. The first was issued in 1738 while the most recent was Pope Francis in a letter dated the 13th of November 2023.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland was formed in 1725 while the Grand Lodge of Scotland followed in 1736. These organizations developed alongside the initial formation of the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster in 1717.