In England and Australia, they're called "biscuits." In Southern colonial times they were called "tea cakes." The term cookie is derived from the Dutch word, "koekje," meaning "small or little cake."
According to culinary historians, the first "cookies" were used as test cakes. Bakers would bake a small amount of cake batter to test the oven temperature.
1596: The cookbook, "Goode Huswife's Jewel," by Thomas Dawson, in Elizabethan England, gives directions for making a cookie that contained butter, egg yolks, sugar, cloves, mace and saffron that was cut into squares before cooking in a "well-swept" oven.
1792: Macaroons originate in an Italian monastery.
1840: Royal icing becomes popular after being used on Queen Victoria's wedding cake.
1890s: The National Biscuit Co.'s Uneeda Biscuit becomes one of the first mass-marketed, prepackaged cookie.
1892: The Fig Newton is invented by Philadelphian James Henry Mitchell and named for Newton, Mass., a town near Boston.
1896: A recipe for oatmeal cookies appears in Fannie Merritt Farmer's "Boston Cooking-School Cookbook."
1902: The National Baking Co. (Nabisco) officially launches Barnum's Animals Crackers, named after circus owner P.T. Barnum. The circus wagon box with string handle is designed to be hung from a Christmas tree.
1912: The Oreo cookie is developed by Nabisco.
1916: In George Washington Carver's research bulletin, "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing It at Home," gives three recipes for peanut cookies.
1930s: Icebox cookies become popular when more Americans get home refrigerators.
1937: Ruth Wakefield of Whitman, Mass., invents the chocolate chip cookie at the Toll House Restaurant.
1957: The Peanut Blossom, a peanut butter cookie with a Hershey's Kiss in the middle, is a finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off and became a classic.
1968: Nabisco's Nilla Wafers are launched.
1993: During the fat-phobic '90s, Nabisco launches Snackwell's low-fat cookies. Sales slumped when the low-carb craze hits.
2008: Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies wins the Pillsbury Bake-Off's million-dollar grand prize.
Sources: The Foodtimeline.com, Nabisco, and General Mills