Potatoes: Also member of nightshade family
Ancient Incas were cultivating them thousands of years ago (Bolivia and Peru, about 200 BC) Introduced to Europe by returning Explorers.

The first recorded conformation of the discovery of the potato occurred in 1537.  A scouting party of Spanish soldiers while traveling eastward came across the high village of Sorocota in Northern Peru.  The naives fled and according to a member of the party Juan de Castellanos, the soldiers found the houses stocked with maize, beans and truffle plants with "scanty flowers of a dull purple color and floury roots of good flavor, " this of course was the potato. 

Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with planting the first potatoes in Ireland in 1589 near Cork on the 40,000 acres of land given to him by Queen Elizabeth I in 1581. This story though wide spread seems to have no foundation.  Most experts agree that the first potato probably did not arrive in Europe until the 1570's.  It was first cultivated in Seville and later was documented in Italy.  Genetically it seems that the first specimens came from the vicinity of Bogotá and was carried overland to Cartagena in the Caribbean, and the transported to Spain.

Potatoes arrived in the Colonies in 1621 when the Governor of Bermuda, Nathaniel Butler, sent two large cedar chests containing potatoes and other vegetables to Governor Francis Wyatt of Virginia at Jamestown.

The first permanent potato patches in North America were established in 1719, most likely near Londonderry (Derry), NH.

A. A. Parmentier helped King Louis XIV popularize the potato in France in the 18th century. Parmentier created a feast with only potato dishes, a concept he realized was possible while being imprisoned in Germany and fed only potatoes. Benjamin Franklin, ambassador to France, was in attendance of Parmentier's feast in 1767.

Marie Antoinette wife of Louis XV was known to wear potato blossoms as a hair decoration.

French Fries were introduced to the U.S. when Thomas Jefferson served them in the White House during his Presidency of 1801-1809.

Over the years of cultivation in Ireland the potato had become the major food source to the Irish population. In 1845-46 a fungus destroyed the potato crops causing the disaster of the Irish Potato Famine

In modern Peru potatoes range in color from pale gray to yellow, red, purple, and even black and are from small in size to larger than a melon.

Popularized in France by an Army Doctor, Parmentier- now any dish that bears his name will  include potatoes. Large-scale cultivation in the US didn't start until19th century

In October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies