The first burrito enthusiasts: the Aztec people of Mexico. They used tortillas to wrap foods, with fillings of chile sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, and avocados. The Aztecs not only used corn in their tortillas, but also squash and amaranth, and some varieties used turkey, eggs, or honey as a flavoring.

The Burrito originates in Northwestern Mexico. It was generally constructed of spiced meat wrapped in flour tortillas and made popular by Northern Mexican and American gold miners.

First Mexican café opens in
Los Angeles, California.

The first U.S. media mention of the burrito.

At the age of 19 Duane R. Roberts invents the first commercial frozen burrito.

The first claim to the origination of the San Francisco Mission-style burrito created in the Mission District for hungry firefighters.

Raul Duran opens La Cumbre Taqueria and offers the first assembly line burrito in San Francisco. This is where it all begins for Qdoba.

The breakfast burrito is born in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.

One frozen food company is now producing over one million frozen burritos a day.

Gary Espinoza opens Taqueria Pancho Villa in San Francisco, notable for featuring four distinct salsas: red (secret recipe) and green (cilantro, jalapeno and tomatillo blend) on the tables, and hot and mild salsas added to the burrito itself behind the counter (tomato, onion, cilantro, green jalapeno and salt).

There are now 100 burrito establishments in the San Francisco Mission District.

One of San Francisco’s most popular taquerias begins offering a “tofu burrito.”

The influential essay “Cylindrical God” (yes, it’s referring to the burrito) is published.

The International Burrito cookbook is published. All cuisines of the world now fill the burrito shell.

Anthony Miller and Robert Hauser open the first Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurant in Denver, Colorado. Bonus trivia: we were originally named Z-teca.

The world’s largest burrito stretches 0.677 miles (1.09 km), weighing 4,500 pounds (2041 kg).

A Clovis, New Mexico middle school student creates a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos for an extra-credit project. The large, foil-wrapped burrito is mistaken as a weapon, and armed police officers are sent in, closing down streets and locking down the school. We hope he got the extra credit.

The Burrito Project begins in Los Angeles, California, feeding burritos to the homeless. The project takes off on MySpace and spreads around the world. In early 2007, the group is awarded a $10,000 MySpace Impact Award for serving “as an instrument of community action on behalf of the needy.”

In honor of Elvis Presley’s birthday, one
restaurant offers peanut butter and banana burritos.

Competitive eater Tim “Eater X” Janus eats 10.75 burritos in 12 minutes, beating out Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas and winning $3,000 at a World Burrito Eating Championship. The burritos weighed 18 ounces, consisting of rice, beans, cheese and sweet pork in a flour tortilla. Eric “Badlands” Booker previously held the world record (15 burritos in eight minutes) but did not return to defend his title.