Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first amino acid, asparagine, was isolated in 1806 by French chemists Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet. This discovery marked the first time an amino acid was found in human history.
The carbon atom next to the carboxyl group is called the alpha-carbon and bears the amine group, side chain, and hydrogen atom in proteinogenic amino acids. With the exception of glycine, this alpha-carbon is stereogenic and all chiral proteogenic amino acids have the L configuration.
Nine standard amino acids called essential cannot be synthesized by the human body at levels needed for normal growth. These nine are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.
There are 22 amino acids naturally incorporated into polypeptides with 20 encoded by the universal genetic code. Selenocysteine and pyrrolysine are incorporated via unique synthetic mechanisms using variant codons.
The term amino acid first appeared in English language usage in 1898 while German speakers had used their own version earlier. Emil Fischer and Franz Hofmeister independently proposed in 1902 that proteins consist of many amino acids linked together.