Short answers, pulled from the story.
Charles Taze Russell founded the movement in Pittsburgh in 1870. Russell was a Scottish-American preacher born in 1852 who turned to the Bible to find answers about the nature of God and the end of the world.
Joseph Franklin Rutherford introduced the name Jehovah's Witnesses on the 26th of July 1931 at a convention in Columbus, Ohio. The name was chosen to distinguish his group from other independent groups that had severed ties with the Society and to symbolize the instigation of new outlooks.
Jehovah's Witnesses typically refuse blood transfusions, which they consider a violation of God's law based on their interpretation of Acts 15:28, 29 and other scriptures. This prohibition has existed since 1945 and acceptance of a blood transfusion without subsequent repentance has been grounds for expulsion from the group since 1961.
As many as 1,200 Jehovah's Witnesses died in Nazi concentration camps, including 250 who were executed. They were identified by purple triangles and suffered persecution because they refused military service and allegiance to Hitler's National Socialist Party.
The ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia was overturned in 1943 when the High Court concluded that the restrictions violated the constitution. The government had seized assets and raided homes to confiscate religious literature after making the organization illegal in 1941.
The Cuban government officially banned the sect on the 1st of July 1974. Those who refused military conscription were typically sentenced to one to six years in Military Units to Aid Production camps where they faced torture and murder by government agents.