Short answers, pulled from the story.
JFK Airport opened on the 1st of July 1948, as New York International Airport, though it was universally known as Idlewild Airport after the Idlewild Beach Golf Course it displaced. It was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport on the 24th of December 1963, following the president's assassination.
In the mid-1950s, the major airlines rejected a plan for a single 55-gate terminal, arguing it would be too small. Architect Wallace Harrison then proposed that each major airline receive its own space to design and build its own terminal. This plan won airline approval in 1955 and shaped the airport's distinctive multi-terminal layout.
On the 11th of December 1978, robbers stole an estimated $5.875 million from the airport, including $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry. It was the largest cash robbery on American soil at the time. James Burke of the Lucchese crime family was believed to be the mastermind but was never charged; the only person convicted was airport worker Louis Werner. The money and jewelry have never been recovered.
The TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, was designated a New York City landmark in 1994 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. After TWA ceased operations in 2001, the building sat vacant until it was incorporated into JetBlue's Terminal 5, which opened in 2008. The Saarinen building was then converted into the TWA Hotel, which opened on the 15th of May 2019, at an estimated cost of $265 million.
AirTrain JFK is a people-mover rail system that connects each airport terminal to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road at Howard Beach and Jamaica stations. Construction began in 1998 after decades of planning, and the system opened on the 17th of December 2003, following delays caused by construction issues and a fatal crash.
JFK Airport covers 5,200 acres and has nearly 100 airlines operating from its five passenger terminals. The airport has four runways, 130 gates in total, and over 25 miles of paved taxiways. It is the busiest international commercial airport in North America and the sixth-busiest airport in the United States.