Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray Disc prototypes in October 2000. These early devices relied on blue laser diodes operating at 405 nanometers to achieve higher data density than previous formats.
The project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc on the 19th of February 2002. A trademark for the Blue Disc logo had been filed earlier on the 9th of February 2001.
Toshiba, the main company supporting HD DVD, discontinued the format in February 2008. On the 19th of February 2008, Toshiba announced it would end production of HD DVD devices.
Dual-layer discs hold 50GB as the industry standard for feature-length video. Standard Blu-ray discs contain 25GB per layer while triple-layer discs reached 100GB and quadruple-layer discs achieved 128GB for BDXL re-writer drives.
Sony added Blu-ray 3D support to its PlayStation 3 console via firmware upgrade on the 21st of September 2010. The BDA officially announced 3D specs for Blu-ray Disc on the 17th of December 2009 allowing backward compatibility with current 2D players.