Tobacco was first used by the peoples of the pre-Columbian Americas. Native Americans speciously cultivated the plant and smoked it in pipes for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. The first European to discover smoking tobacco was Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus brought a few tobacco seeds and leaves with him back to Europe, however most Europeans did not get their first taste of tobacco until the mid-16th century, when adventurers and diplomats like France's Jean Nicot -- for whom nicotine is named -- started to popularize its use. Tobacco was presented to France in 1556, Portugal in 1558, and Spain in 1559, and England in 1565.
At first, tobacco was produced mostly for pipe-smoking, chewing, and snuff. Cigars did not become well-liked until the early 1800s. Cigarettes, which had been all over the place in crude form since the early 1600s, did not become widely popular in the United States until after the Civil War, with the spread of "Bright" tobacco, a uniquely cured yellow leaf grown in North Carolina and Virginia.
San Diego Padres fans remember Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn's hitting prowess: 3,141 hits, a .338 batting average and an intense focus at the plate. What they probably don't remember is Gwynn using smokeless tobacco throughout his career -- a habit, Gwynn told ESPN in 2010, that he believed gave him cancer. Gwynn's use doesn't specifically come to mind because so many of his fellow Major League Baseball players had the same habit. Read more at CNN.