Short answers, pulled from the story.
The ancient physician Galen originally called the tomato the wolf peach. This name was coined for a plant he could never identify, yet it later defined the most widely consumed fruit on Earth.
The first cookbook with tomato recipes appeared in Naples in 1692. Even then, the recipes were likely borrowed from Spanish sources, and the fruit took another hundred years to be accepted as food in Italy.
The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on the 10th of May 1893 in the case of Nix v. Hedden. The court declared that for the purposes of the Tariff of 1883, the tomato is a vegetable based on its popular definition as a dish served with dinner rather than dessert.
A mutant phenotype known as u was discovered in the mid-20th century which allowed fruits to ripen uniformly red without the typical green ring around the stem. This trait reduced the fruit's sugar content by 10 to 15 percent and impaired its flavor.
The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on the 31st of May 2012. This publication revealed 34,384 predicted proteins spread over 12 chromosomes and allowed scientists to investigate the plant's defense mechanisms.
As many as 40,000 Spaniards gathered in 2007 to throw 145 tonnes of tomatoes at each other during the La Tomatina festival. This event created a spectacle of red pulp and laughter in the town of Buñol.