National Pizza Day

National Pizza Day, observed February 9th, celebrates one of the most popular foods in the world: a baked flatbread typically topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and various other toppings. Modern pizza traces its roots to Naples, Italy, where flatbreads topped with simple ingredients were a common food among the working class by the 18th and 19th centuries. The now-iconic Margherita pizza, topped with tomato, mozzarella, and basil to represent the colors of the Italian flag, is often said to have been created in 1889 by Neapolitan pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy, though some food historians question the precise details of that popular origin story. Pizza arrived in the United States with Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Lombardi's in New York City, opened in 1905, widely credited as the first licensed pizzeria in the country. From those immigrant-community beginnings, pizza grew into a defining feature of American food culture, developing distinct regional styles including New York's thin, foldable slices, Chicago's deep-dish pies, and Detroit's rectangular, crispy-edged version, alongside countless local and chain variations. On National Pizza Day, people celebrate by ordering from a favorite pizzeria, making pizza at home, or trying a new regional style or topping combination.