Becky,
Here's the apocryphal version: supposedly eating artichokes was invented by starving peasants in Southern France/Northern Italy. Here's how it goes: local knights liked to have "practice" battles against each other, but didn't want anyone to get killed. So they armed peasants with "spears" made from artichoke (stalk + head), called them men-at-arms, and had at it. At the end of things, the crops would be all trampled by the horses, and all the peasants had was the artichokes they were armed with. So, out comes the stew pot.
The more likely historical version is that artichokes are just a variety of very large nettle. Nettles have been eaten, heavily boiled, as a source of vitamins in mountain winters around the world since the stone age. The Italians (Etruscans at that time, probably) had a particularly large and meaty version of nettle, which they "genetically engineered" the old-fashioned way to have huge, thick stalks ... the cardoon. Later (and this is recorded) other gourmets in France, Italy, etc. decided that they really liked the unbloomed flower of the cardoon and bred a second variety with smaller stalks and huge blossoms, the artichoke.
The apocryphal version makes a better story, of course, so feel free to repeat it over dinner.
Photos required 
