Ten delightful, share-worthy things about the world's favorite food — from royal beginnings to outer-space deliveries.
In 1889, Naples pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito made a pizza for Queen Margherita of Savoy using tomato, mozzarella, and basil — the three colors of the Italian flag. She loved it. The pie has carried her name ever since.
That's the estimate the National Association of Pizza Operators has repeated for years. Roughly 350 slices are eaten every second in the United States.
In 2001, Pizza Hut famously delivered a salami pizza to Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachov aboard the International Space Station — a genuine, radiation-tested, vacuum-sealed slice.
In 2023, Pizza Hut and a team in Los Angeles baked a pizza spanning 13,957 square feet. That's officially the largest pizza ever certified by Guinness World Records.
The European Union grants "Pizza Napoletana" Traditional Specialty Guaranteed status. Real Neapolitan pizza has a specific dough, San Marzano tomatoes, and must bake in a wood-fired oven for 60–90 seconds.
Declared in the US in 1984 by Gerry Durnell, publisher of Pizza Today magazine. Pizzerias everywhere celebrate with specials — a great excuse to try something new.
It was invented in Chatham, Ontario in 1962 by Greek-Canadian chef Sam Panopoulos. The pineapple debate has never cooled since.
In 1994, Pizza Hut's PizzaNet let people order online — one of the earliest real e-commerce transactions on the public internet.
In 2017, UNESCO added the art of Neapolitan pizza-twirling to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Lombardi's on Spring Street in Manhattan is generally credited as the first licensed pizzeria in the United States. It still serves coal-oven pies today.
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