This feature looks at the first time famous names or terms appeared in The Times. Have an idea for someone or something you would like to read about? Send a suggestion in the comments section.

It has been a staple of New York (not to mention newsrooms) for so long that it is hard to imagine a time when pizza needed an introduction. But that’s what it got on Sept. 20, 1944 — at a time when Italy was full of American troops who were acquiring a taste for the pies. Note the rare use of the plural “pizze”:

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Three years later, on May 25, 1947, The Times noted the potential of this seemingly newfangled concoction. “The pizza could be as popular a snack as the hamburger if Americans only knew more about it”:

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While The Times introduced pizza to readers on Sept. 20, 1944, the word first appeared in the newspaper four years earlier, a passing mention in the last paragraph of a June 2, 1940 story headlined “Mrs. Belardi Regrets.” An earlier version of this item omitted the 1940 mention.