Could you please provide some facts from the history of Poker?

A. Pre-1600 First Games: Card games in both France - Gilet - and Italy - Primero - had elements of what we now know as poker: betting on hands with pairs, three of a kind, and three of the same suit.
1600-1790 Evolution: These games spread and evolved into Brag in England, Pochen (Germany), and Poque (France). They even had elements of bluffing, and the names of the German and French versions are obviously very close to the word "Poker". In the German game, players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" However, there a school of thought that claims the Hindu word, pukka, as the origin of poker, and certainly the "pukka sahibs" (the white rulers) in India certainly played a version of such a game.
1790-1830 Poque: In French-speaking New Orleans, sailors from Persia taught the French settlers the gambling card game, ?s, which was derived from the ancient Persian game of ?s Nas. This required a special deck of 25 cards with 5 suits (5 cards per suit total) and was played by four people. The settlers absorbed some of the elements of this game into their own game of Poque, saying, "I poque (pronounced, as the French do, in two syllables - po-que) for a dollar," or "I poque against you for two dollars." The evolving game became known first as "Poqas" , then "Pokah".and finally "Poker".
We can probably ignore other speculation about the name, such as its coming from "poke," a term used by pickpockets, or "hocus-pocus", a term used by conjurors.
1829 - New Orleans: A reference in the diary of English actor Joseph Crowell records that there was a game being played on the steamboat Helen M'Gregor, bound for New Orleans, in which each player received five cards and made bets - then whoever held the highest combination of cards won all bets. He says it had been invented by the politician Henry Clay and was founded on brag. The steamboats carried the game up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. From the river towns, the game spread east by the new railroad and west by covered wagons. There was just one round of betting. Players were dealt five cards face down and there was no draw of cards.
1834 - The "Cheating Game": Jonathan H. Green, professional gambler turned reformer, makes one of the earliest written references to poker in 1834. He referred to it as the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He called it Poker.
The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards, the best hand dealt won, and it surpassed Three-Card Monte in popularity. Suckers no longer taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game.
1837 - Straights and Flushes: added to the game, along with a 52-card deck, which enabled more than four people to play at a time.
1848 - Gold Rush: thousands of prospectors trekked west, taking the game with them
1850 - Wild cards: Poker was transformed by their introduction.
1861 - Stud and Draw: The Civil War caused a dramatic explosion in the popularity of poker, thousands of soldiers playing the game in barracks across the North and South. The Civil War also spread significant modifications, such as draw and stud. By the war's end, poker had become America's favorite card game, played wherever two or more men and a deck of cards could be found. Changes of cards made several rounds of betting possible and increased the element of skill. Bluffing became an important part of the game.
1872 - Rules established: Poker was taken back to Europe when Robert C. Schenck, U.S. minister to Great Britain, introduced it to members of the court of Queen Victoria at a royal party. A set of rules written by Schenck at the request of 'a noted English duchess" became the first book on the game when she had it printed and distributed to her friends.
1870 - Jackpot Poker: Jackpots (jacks-or-better to open) introduced to prevent players with inferior cards being drawn into dangerous pots. The joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.
1880 - Texas Hold'em invented: among the many variations of the game, this is the one that triumphed as the game of choice for the high rollers, and thus imposed on the whole poker-playing community.
1896 - "Poker Chips": the first magazine devoted to the game published.
1903 - Split-Pot Low Ball: Low and high-low games introduced.
1909 - Bill against Fools: Two Missouri assemblymen (Coran and Lyles) introduced a bill to the state legislature to control and license poker players in order to prevent "millions of dollars lost annually by incompetent and foolish persons who do not know the value of a poker hand."
1911 - Boom of Draw Games: In 1911, California's attorney general (Harold Sigel Webb) ruled that closed poker (draw poker) was a game of skill and beyond anti-gambling laws. But open poker (stud poker) was a game of chance and therefore illegal. That stimulated the development of new draw games and the use of wild cards.
1925 - Community Cards: Texas Hold'em and Omaha spread from those states, gradually eclipsing earlier forms of the game.
1930 - Poker enters the language. The ubiquity of the game is reflected in the number of phrases from it entering everyday speech, even among non-players. Ace in the hole, beats me, blue chip, call the bluff, cash in, pass the buck, poker face, stack up, up the ante, when the chips are down and wild card pass into everyday conversation.
1938 - Britain's Prohibition: the Lord Chief Justice declared poker to be a game of chance, and it was not legalized in clubs until the 1960s. Poker continued to played privately in the UK and was alternatively known as "Bluff". In 1960 it was legalized in clubs who could make a charge but not take a rake. It was later allowed to be played in casinos.
1965 - The Cincinnati Kid: Hollywood spread the game around the world with this film, introducing many people who had never played it to its delights and excitements.
1970 - World Series of Poker (WSOP): first played at Binions Horseshoe in Las Vegas. The game was Texas Hold'em, which had by now become dominant. The winner was declared poker world champion. Significantly, four of the nine men who won the title in its first twelve years were Texans.
1978 - SuperSystem: "Super/System: A Course in Power Poker'', by Doyle Brunson, in conjunction with several of the other top professional players of the day revolutionized the study of the game.
2000 - Television and Internet: regular televising of tournaments (particularly with the use of glass-topped tables so that viewers could see players' cards) and the establishment of online poker rooms brought poker out of the casinos and card-rooms and into people's homes.
2003 - World Poker Tour: this televised series brought the worlds of casino poker and television together, using a tiny camera to see players' hole cards. Its prize pool in 2004 was a record $8m.
2004 - Speed Poker: the exponential spread of Online Poker made cardroom poker seem slow, and the first World Speed Poker Championships were held in Tallinn, Estonia. Players were given 15 seconds to act.

PokerTips.org also has a Poker History Section