Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth whose name in the original manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her Aramaic name Miriam, transliterated as Maria. She resided in her own house in Nazareth in Galilee during the betrothal stage of a Jewish marriage.
Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem during a Roman census ordered by Emperor Augustus. The event occurred when there was no place for them in the inn, so she used a manger as a cradle.
Mary disappears from the biblical accounts after the Pentecost, though Orthodox tradition holds that she first died a natural death known as the Dormition of Mary. Her body was then assumed taken bodily into Heaven, a belief held by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Mary is mentioned or referred to in the Quran a total of 50 times, making her the only woman named in the scripture. Muslims often refer to her by the honorific title Sayyidatuna, meaning Our Lady.
The First Council of Ephesus held at the Church of Mary in 431 confirmed the title Mother of God for Mary. The Council decreed that Mary is the Mother of God because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man.
The earliest known Marian prayer Sub Tuum Praesidium dates to the 3rd century, perhaps 270. Its text was rediscovered in 1917 on a papyrus in Egypt.