Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jaffa has functioned as a major Levantine port since the Bronze Age. It served as the port of entry for Lebanese cedars used in building Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple of Jerusalem, as an Egyptian imperial administrative centre around 1350 BCE, and as the main port of Hasmonean Judea. Its importance declined after Herod built a superior harbour at Caesarea.
Most of Jaffa's Arab population fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine War. The population before the Irgun's April 1948 assault stood at 50,000-60,000; by the time the Haganah took control on the 14th of May 1948, approximately 4,000 people remained. The 3,800 Arabs who stayed were concentrated in the Ajami district under strict martial law.
The Jaffa orange, also known as the Shamouti, emerged as a mutation on a Baladi variety sweet orange tree near the city of Jaffa. Arab farmers cultivated it first, and British consular reports from the 1850s first record its export to Europe. By the 1860s, approximately ten million oranges were being exported annually from the city.
The Treaty of Jaffa was signed on the 2nd of September 1192, formalising a three-year truce between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin after the July 1192 Battle of Jaffa. It followed Richard's recapture of the city on the 10th of September 1191, three days after the Battle of Arsuf. A separate Treaty of Jaffa in 1229, signed by Frederick II, established a ten-year truce.
The permanent unification of Jaffa and Tel Aviv was decided on the 4th of October 1949 and took effect on the 16th of June 1950. The unified city was renamed Tel Aviv-Yafo on the 19th of August 1950 to preserve the historical name Jaffa. The merger was delayed by opposition from Tel Aviv's mayor Israel Rokach, who sought government funding to cover Jaffa's fiscal deficit.
On the 7th of March 1799, French troops under Napoleon captured Jaffa in a siege. After breaching the city walls, Napoleon granted his troops two days to sack the city. He also ordered the massacre of 2,100 Ottoman prisoners of war, events recorded by his deputy commissioner of war Jacques-Francois Miot. A subsequent epidemic of bubonic plague killed many more.