Short answers, pulled from the story.
Paleolithic artists created drawings in the Lascaux Cave between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They utilized white calcite and chalk as both background and highlight alongside charcoal and ochre. This marks white as one of the very first colors used in human artistic expression.
Priests and priestesses of Isis dressed exclusively in white linen to symbolize their sacred role. The same white linen was used to wrap mummies, connecting the color to the transition between life and the afterlife. This practice linked white to the goddess Isis in ancient Egypt.
Popes have worn white regularly since 1566, when Pope Pius V, a member of the Dominican Order, began the practice. Within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, lighter colors indicated higher rank, and outside a church, only the pope would wear white. This tradition continues to mark the highest rank in the church.
The white flag was officially recognized as a request to cease hostilities by the Geneva Convention of 1949. It is believed to have originated in the 15th century during the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This recognition standardized the symbol for surrender or truce requests.
Between 1916 and 1918, chemical companies in Norway and the United States began to produce titanium white. It had first been identified in the 18th century by the German chemist Martin Klaproth. By 1945, 80 percent of the white pigments sold were titanium white.
The White movement was the opposition that formed against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was finally defeated by the Bolsheviks in 1921 to 1922. Many of its members emigrated to Europe after the defeat.