Short answers, pulled from the story.
CryptoNote was created by a person or group using the pseudonym Nicolas van Saberhagen. Nothing is known about the real identity of the author. The CryptoNote Whitepaper was released in two editions, in 2012 and in 2013.
Cryptocurrencies built on the CryptoNote protocol include Monero, Zano, MobileCoin, Safex Cash, Bytecoin, Boolberry, Dashcoin, DigitalNote, DarkNetCoin, Pebblecoin, Quazarcoin, Quan Classic, and AEON.
Bytecoin, ticker symbol BCN, was the first cryptocurrency to use the CryptoNote protocol. It launched in the summer of 2012.
Bitcoin uses a stepped emission curve with periodic halvings, while CryptoNote uses a smooth curve in which the block reward decreases with every block mined. The Safex Blockchain is one exception, implementing an S-curve emission designed to match the Diffusion of Innovations technology adoption theory.
Monero, ticker symbol XMR, is a 2014 fork of Bytecoin, the first CryptoNote-based cryptocurrency. The Monero fork introduced changes including a two-minute block time and a modified emission schedule.
Andrey Sabelnikov is one of the creators of the CryptoNote codebase. After working at Bytecoin, the first CryptoNote implementation, he launched Boolberry, which later became the technical foundation for the cryptocurrency Zano.