Pizza

A Latin text from Gaeta, Italy records the word "pizza" as a local flatbread given as payment to a bishop. The proto-pizza was a simple focaccia-style bread, long before tomatoes reached Europe.

Spanish conquistadors bring tomatoes back from the Americas to Europe. Initially feared as poisonous, Neapolitan peasants eventually add the fruit to their flatbreads, creating the foundation of modern pizza.

The world's oldest documented pizzeria opens in Naples, Italy, initially as a street stall for workers before moving to a permanent location. It still operates today on Via Port'Alba.

Neapolitan pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito creates the Margherita for Queen Margherita of Savoy, topping it with tomato (red), mozzarella (white), and basil (green) to represent the Italian flag. Pizza's defining recipe is set.

Gennaro Lombardi opens America's first pizzeria at 53½ Spring Street in Manhattan, New York City. Italian immigrants flock to its coal-fired Neapolitan pies. Lombardi's still operates today and is a New York landmark.

Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo open Pizzeria Uno in Chicago, introducing the deep-dish style — a thick, buttery crust pressed into a pan with chunky tomato sauce layered on top of the cheese. A distinctly American pizza revolution begins.

American GIs returning from Italy bring a taste for pizza with them. Demand for Italian-style pizzerias surges across the U.S., turning pizza from an ethnic niche food into a mainstream American staple.

Brothers Dan and Frank Carney open the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas with a $600 loan from their mother. Their pan pizza and red roof restaurants define casual family dining for decades. By the 1970s it becomes the world's largest pizza chain.

Tom Monaghan and his brother buy a small pizza shop called DomiNick's in Ypsilanti, Michigan for $500. Tom later buys out his brother, renames it Domino's, and builds an empire on a revolutionary promise: 30-minute delivery.

Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-Canadian restaurateur in Chatham, Ontario, adds canned pineapple to a pizza on a whim, creating the Hawaiian pizza. Polarizing to this day, it remains one of the most ordered toppings worldwide.

Little Caesars launches its iconic two-for-one "Pizza! Pizza!" campaign, making it the fastest-growing pizza chain in the world through the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Hot-N-Ready $5 pizza later becomes a cultural touchstone.

Pizza Hut takes what is widely considered the first commercial transaction on the internet — an online order for a pepperoni pizza placed in Santa Cruz, California. E-commerce begins with a slice.

Scott and Ally Svenson open the first MOD Pizza in Seattle, pioneering the fast-casual, build-your-own pizza model. The format — like Chipotle for pizza — explodes into a national trend, spawning dozens of competitors.

Domino's publicly admits its pizza "totally sucks" in a landmark ad campaign, rebuilds its recipe from scratch, and transforms its digital ordering. The move is a branding masterstroke — Domino's stock surges over 5,000% over the next decade.

UNESCO inscribes the art of Neapolitan pizza-making ("pizzaiuolo") on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The craft joins flamenco and the Mediterranean diet as a protected world tradition.

The U.S. pizza industry surpasses $46 billion in annual sales. Americans eat approximately 3 billion pizzas per year — roughly 23 pounds of pizza per person. Pizza is served in over 70,000 pizzerias across the country.