Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest surviving furniture is found in Skara Brae, a Neolithic village in Orkney, Scotland, dating from roughly 3100 to 2500 BCE. Because wood was scarce in Orkney, everything was built from stone, including cupboards, dressers, beds, shelves, and seats.
Egypt had no suitable native timber for furniture. Wood had to be imported, primarily from Phoenicia, making it scarce and expensive. To stretch supply, craftsmen invented scarf joints to join two short pieces into a longer beam, and veneering to cover cheap structural wood with a thin decorative layer of expensive wood.
The klismos was an ancient Greek chair distinguished by a curved backrest and outward-curving legs. Romans copied it, and its form is still considered part of the standard vocabulary of furniture design.
It comes from the French word fourniture, the noun form of fournir, meaning to supply or provide. The English usage specifically for household objects is unique to English. French and other Romance languages, as well as German, use variants of meubles, from the Latin mobilia, meaning moveable goods.
In 1754, the London cabinet maker Thomas Chippendale published The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, described as the first comprehensive trade catalogue of its kind. It created a mass market for furniture by allowing buyers and craftsmen across Britain to specify designs without visiting a London showroom.
Mid-Century Modern relied on materials developed during World War II, specifically laminated plywood, plastics, and fiberglass. Designers including Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Harry Bertoia used these materials to create the style's distinctive forms.