On this Day in 1558, the Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes, sent to Mexico to investigate their flora, is said to have introduced tobacco to Europeans for the first time, bringing back the herb panacea.Tobacco conquered all of Europe soon thereafter. After gaining popularity in the court of Spanish King Phillip I, the following year it was introduced by the Spanish to the French aristocratic Medici family.In the picture: Gentlemen Smoking and Playing Backgammon in an Interior by Dick Hals, 1627.
