Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word pizza first appeared in a Latin manuscript from the southern Italian town of Gaeta in May 997 AD. This document, known as the Codex diplomaticus Caietanus, required a tenant to deliver twelve pizzas and a pork shoulder to the bishop of Gaeta annually on Christmas Day.
A popular legend claims Raffaele Esposito created the archetypal pizza Margherita in 1889 for Queen Margherita. However, later research cast doubt on this story, noting that no media of the period reported the visit.
The first pizzeria in the United States opened in New York City in 1905. Lombardi's established a foothold in Little Italy, serving the growing immigrant population.
Authentic Neapolitan pizza uses San Marzano tomatoes grown on volcanic plains south of Mount Vesuvius. It features mozzarella di bufala campana made with milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio.
In 2009, Neapolitan pizza was registered with the European Union as a traditional speciality guaranteed dish. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, founded in 1984, promotes traditional Neapolitan pizza from its headquarters in Naples.
In 2017, the world pizza market reached a value of US$128 billion. The United States market alone was worth $44 billion spread over 76,000 pizzerias.