Thread by @DavidCranmerUn1

Nerve agent - Wikipedia
This first class of nerve agents, the G-series, was accidentally discovered in Germany on December 23, 1936, by a research team headed by Gerhard Schrader working for IG Farben. Since 1934, Schrader had been working in a laboratory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_age…

in Leverkusen to develop new types of insecticides for IG Farben. While working toward his goal of improved insecticide, Schrader experimented with numerous compounds, eventually leading to the preparation of Tabun.

Schrader discovered two more organophosphate nerve agents, and

a fourth after the war:
•Tabun (1936)
•Sarin (1938)
•Soman (1944)
•Cyclosarin (1949)

Sarin was discovered by Schrader and his team in 1938 and named in honor of its discoverers: Gerhard Schrader, Otto Ambros, Gerhard Ritter [de], and Hans-Jürgen von der Linde.

Otto Ambros (19 May 1901 – 23 July 1990) was a German chemist and Nazi war criminal. He is known for his wartime work on synthetic rubber (polybutadiene, or "Buna rubber").

Otto Ambros was released from prison in 1951 after he was granted clemency by U.S. High Commissioner (of

Allied Germany) John McCloy.

He became an adviser to chemical companies such as W. R. Grace, Dow Chemical, as well as the U.S. Army Chemical Corps, and Konrad Adenauer.

He was also advising Chemie Grünenthal (now Grünenthal GmbH) in the development of thalidomide.

Zinsser & Company synthesized organic chemicals. The Zinsser plant was as one of the establishments contracted to produce mustard gas during the First World War.

Frederick G. Zinsser (March 21, 1868 – January 20, 1956) was a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Frederick

married Emma Sharman and they had three children, they raised them in a well-to-do German-speaking household. (The son John attended Harvard University, and was a chemist and associated with his father for some years, then later became vice chairman of the board of Merck & Co.

of Rahway, New Jersey and president of Sharp & Dohme Inc. of Philadelphia and was on the board of directors of the investment bank JP Morgan in New York during the 1940s. The two daughters Ellen and Margaret (“Peggy”) both attended Smith College and were sent to Germany to

complete their education. “Peggy” married Lewis Williams Douglas, scion of one of the most powerful families in Arizona and sole heir of the Phelps Dodge copper mining fortune, who succeeded Harriman as ambassador to London. Ellen married John J. McCloy, the chief lawyer for the

Rockefeller and the “Seven Sisters” interests, member of the Warren Commission, and advisor to nine US presidents.)

Zinsser also served as a colonel in the US Army as assistant to William Walker, commander of the Chemical Warfare Service's Edgewood Arsenal in Baltimore,

Maryland, where the army operated a mustard gas plant.

Konrad Adenauer married Auguste Zinsser in 1919; she died in 1948.

Adenauer enjoyed a very good working relationship with John Foster Dulles, the United States Secretary of States.

As a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell,

Dulles expanded upon his late grandfather Foster's expertise, specializing in international finance. He played a major role in designing the Dawes Plan, which reduced German reparations payments and temporarily resolved the reparations issue by having American firms lend money to

German states and private companies.

The first Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) president was the former US Vice President Charles Dawes. He soon resigned to attend to his bank in Chicago, which was in danger of failing, and President Herbert Hoover appointed Atlee

Pomerene of Ohio to head the agency in July 1932.

The RFC was an independent agency of the US Federal Government, and fully owned and operated by the government. The idea was suggested by Eugene Meyer of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, recommended by President Hoover,

and established by Congress in 1932. It was modeled after the US War Finance Corporation of World War I.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in 1933, increased the RFC's funding, streamlined the bureaucracy, and used it to help restore business prosperity,

especially in banking and railroads. He appointed Texas banker Jesse H. Jones [Suite 8F Godfather in Houston] to lead the agency, and Jones turned the RFC into an empire with loans made in every state.

The RFC could finance projects without Congress approving them and the loans

would not be included in budget expenditures. Soon the RFC was able to buy bank preferred stock with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933. Buying stock would serve as collateral when banks needed loans.

The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) was established to provide assistance.

The CCC, which has no staff, is essentially a financing institution for the USDA's farm price and income support commodity programs, commodity export credit guarantees, and agricultural export subsidies. The programs funded through CCC are administered by employees of the Farm

Service Agency, the Agricultural Marketing Service, and the Foreign Agricultural Service.

The mortgage company was affected as well since families were not able to make their payments. This led the RFC to create its own mortgage company to sell and insure mortgages. The Federal

National Mortgage Association (also known as Fannie Mae) was established and funded by the RFC. It later became a private corporation. An Export–Import Bank was also created to encourage trade with the Soviet Union.

Roosevelt created a Second Export–Import Bank of Washington

with Executive Order 6638 on March 9, 1934, with the specific goal of aiding trade with Cuba. The Bank's first transaction was a $3.8 million loan to Cuba in 1935 for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots.

EXIM played a critical role during the years between the end of Lend-Lease

(September 1945) and the beginning of the Marshall Plan and the World Bank's first authorizations (May 1947 – 1948).

EXIM resumed business with Czechoslovakia in March 1990. On January 25, 1991, EXIM approved the first transaction to Czechoslovakia since 1947. Financed by First

Interstate Bank of Los Angeles, CA, the guarantee allowed Tonak Hat Company to purchase computers from a U.S. company, Digital Equipment Corporation of
Massachusetts.

MUMPS was developed by Neil Pappalardo, Robert Greenes, and Curt Marble in Dr. Octo Barnett's lab at the

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston during 1966 and 1967. It was later rewritten by technical leaders Dennis "Dan" Brevik and Paul Stylos of DEC in 1970 and 1971.

Some aspects of MUMPS can be traced from RAND Corporation's JOSS through BBN's TELCOMP and STRINGCOMP.

J.H. Whitney & Company is a venture-capital firm in the U.S., founded in 1946 by partners John Hay Whitney and Benno Schmidt.

Whitney had been investing since the 1930s, founding Pioneer Pictures in 1933 and acquiring a 15% interest in Technicolor Corporation with his cousin

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. What is considered today to be true private equity investments began to emerge after World War II, marked by the founding of the first two venture capital firms in 1946: American Research and Development Corporation and J.H. Whitney & Company.

American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, Ralph Flanders, Merrill Griswold, and Karl Compton.

ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment

of $70,000 in equity ("70% of the company") and approximately $2 million in loans in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) became valued at many times the amount invested after the company's success after its initial public offering in 1966.
ARDC continued investing until 1971

with the retirement of Doriot. In 1972, Doriot merged ARDC with Textron after having invested in over 150 companies.

ARDC's significance was primarily that it was the first institutional private equity investment firm that accepted money from sources other than wealthy families

as had J.H. Whitney & Company and Rockefeller Brothers although it had several investment successes as well.
Former employees of ARDC have gone on to found several prominent venture capital firms including Greylock Partners (founded in 1965 by Charlie Waite and Bill Elfers) and

Morgan, Holland Ventures, the predecessor of Flagship Ventures (founded in 1982 by James Morgan).

Benno Charles Schmidt Sr. (January 10, 1913 – October 21, 1999) was an American lawyer and venture capitalist who was active in New York City civic affairs and played an important

role in the initiation of the War on Cancer.

Benno Schmidt Sr., (left) at the White House in 1973 with (left to right) President Richard Nixon, Dr. R. L. Clark (M.D. Anderson Cancer Center), and Dr. Robert A. Good.

Schmidt was the chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals board and one of its largest early investors.

Vertex was founded in 1989 by Joshua Boger and Kevin J. Kinsella.

From 1970 to 1973, Boger attended Wesleyan University. During this time Max Tishler, formerly the president of

Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories, became Boger's mentor.

Vannevar Bush (/væˈniːvɑːr/ van-NEE-var; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was director of Metals and Controls Corporation from 1952 to 1959, and of Merck & Co. 1949–1962. Bush became chairman of the board at

Merck following the death of George W. Merck, serving until 1962. He worked closely with the company's president, Max Tishler, although Bush was concerned about Tishler's reluctance to delegate responsibility. Bush distrusted the company's sales organization, but supported

Tishler's research and development efforts.

During World War II, George Merck led the War Research Service, which initiated the U.S. biological weapons program with Frank Olson.

The United States biological weapons program began in 1943 and was discontinued in 1969.
The

program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and

stockpiled the following seven bio-agents (and pursued basic research on many more):
•Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)
•Francisella tularensis (tularemia)
•Brucella spp (brucellosis)
•Coxiella burnetii (Q-fever)
•Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

•Botulinum toxin (botulism)
•Staphylococcal enterotoxin B

In 1969, President Richard Nixon ended all offensive (i.e., non-defensive) aspects of the U.S. bio-weapons program. In 1975 the U.S. ratified both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention

(BWC)—international treaties outlawing biological warfare. Recent U.S. biodefense programs, however, have raised concerns that the U.S. may be pursuing research that is outlawed by the United Nations.

The war on cancer began with the National Cancer Act of 1971, a United States

federal law. The act was intended "to amend the Public Health Service Act so as to strengthen the National Cancer Institute in order to more effectively carry out the national effort against cancer". It was signed into law by President Nixon on December 23, 1971.

Health activist

and philanthropist Mary Lasker was instrumental in persuading the United States Congress to pass the National Cancer Act. She and her husband Albert Lasker were strong supporters of medical research.

On September 15, 1971, Mrs. Lasker was elected to the Board of Directors of

Braniff Airways, Incorporated.

On June 9, 1921, President Harding's appointment of Albert Lasker as chairman of the United States Shipping Board was confirmed by the US Senate.

Lasker was an early owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. He acquired an interest in the team in

1916 and soon purchased majority control.
Lasker, along with his business partner Charles Weeghman, are credited with moving the Cubs into the club's current home, Wrigley Field.
In 1925, he sold the team to one of his minor partners, William Wrigley Jr.

Braniff Airways, Inc., operating as Braniff International Airways, from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until closure, was an American airline that flew air carrier operations from 1928 until 1982.

The airline ceased air carrier operations in May 1982

because of high fuel prices, credit card interest rates and extreme competition from new airline startups created by the Airline Deregulation Act of December 1978. Two later airlines used the Braniff name: the Hyatt Hotels-backed Braniff, Inc. in 1983–89, and Braniff

International Airlines, Inc. in 1991–92.

In 1966, Braniff investor Troy V. Post, by now a regular at the Johnson White House, obtained a government contract to transport military personnel from Vietnam to Hawaii for their R&R furloughs during the Vietnam War. The Military

Airlift Command routes were expanded in the Pacific and added to the Atlantic side in 1966.

In 1967 Braniff, purchased Pan American-Grace Airways (known as Panagra) from shareholders of Pan American World Airways and W.R. Grace, increasing its presence in South America.

Braniff entered into negotiations with Eastern Airlines to lease the routes to the Miami-based carrier for US$18 million effective June 1, 1982, for one year.

On May 12, 1982 Braniff Airways ceased all operations, ending 54 years of air service.

Braniff Educations Systems,

Inc., met for classes as scheduled on the morning of May 13, 1982, and during the reorganization was sold to Frontier Airlines, Inc.,

Braniff International Hotels, Inc., also continued in operation, which primarily operated the world famous Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas.

In 1934, future President Lyndon Johnson met his future wife, Claudia Taylor, for their first date at the Driskill dining room. It became his campaign headquarters during his congressional career, especially during his famous 1948 Senate race, and became a favorite place on

return trips to Austin during his presidency. He watched the results of the 1964 Presidential Election from its presidential suite and addressed supporters from its ballroom after his victory.

On September 11, 2001, Jenna Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, was

relocated to the hotel by the Secret Service in the wake of the terrorist attacks earlier that day.

The assets of Hotels were transferred to the new Dalfort Corporation, which was the reorganized company created from Braniff Airways, Inc., and Braniff International Corporation,

which was financed by the Hyatt Corporation.

Braniff is one of only two heritage airlines that continues to control its own intellectual property with Pan Am the other. Braniff Place World Headquarters, which the carrier occupied until December 15, 1983, on the west side of

DFW Airport eventually became GTE Place, and then Verizon Place.

The first Hyatt House opened in 1954 by entrepreneurs Hyatt Robert von Dehn and Jack Dyer Crouch as a motel near Los Angeles International Airport. In 1957, the hotel was purchased by entrepreneur Jay Pritzker

for $2.2 million. His younger brother, Donald Pritzker, also took on an important role in the company. Considering the growing use of air travel for business, the Pritzker brothers realized that locating a high quality hotel near a major airport was a valuable business strategy.

Within two years, they opened Hyatt House motels near San Francisco International Airport and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.

Marmon Group is an American industrial holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; founded by Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker in 1953

(as Colson Corporation), it has been held by the Berkshire Hathaway group since 2013.

The company is known for its control and leadership by Warren Buffett, who serves as chairman and chief executive, and Charlie Munger, the company's vice chairman.