KBR history

The company was incorporated in 1905 and its headquarters was moved to Jersey City, New Jersey.

Beginning in 1922, the two brothers would work together for the next 40 years, taking Brown & Root to new heights in each succeeding decade and using their contrasting personalities to steward the company through the many challenges that lay waiting ahead.

1929: Root dies; brothers Herman and George Brown incorporate as Brown & Root Inc.

However, Brown & Root was able to escape from the grip of the depression in a relatively short time, securing a contract in 1934 for the construction of a board road for Humble Oil Company in Roanoke, Louisiana.

Of more immediate significance to the two brothers, though, was a project awarded to the company in 1936, when Brown & Root secured the construction contract for the Marshall Ford Dam.

The success of the Marshall Dam project led to more large-scale, government-funded work four years later when Brown & Root was awarded a contract to help build a $90-million naval air station at Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1940.

Their marked success with the first four led to a contract for four additional submarine chasers, then 12 more, finally resulting in an order in early 1942 for a medium-sized fleet of destroyer escorts which yielded Brown & Root $3.3 million for each ship.

In 1946, the company received its first overseas project; began work on its first major engineering project, a chlorine caustic plant for Diamond Alkali; and was awarded its first pulp & paper industry work.

In 1947 Brown & Root built one of the world's first offshore oil platforms.

In 1951, the company opened an office near Edmonton, Alberta, to facilitate the construction of a petrochemical and synthetic fiber plant.

Kellogg maintained New York offices at 225 Broadway in the Transportation Building until 1956 when it moved to 711 Third Avenue in Midtown.

After extending its presence into Canada and Venezuela, Brown & Root tackled two enormous projects in 1958, building the Bhumiphol Dam in Thailand and the Tantangara Dam and Tunnel for the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Authority in Australia.

In 1960, the company became involved in a government project for the National Science Foundation dubbed Project Mohole, the objective of which was to drill in 14,000 feet of water and penetrate 21,000 feet below the earth's crust.

The deal was completed in November, shortly after Brown's death, with Halliburton paying $32.6 million for roughly 95 percent of Brown & Root up front, then acquiring the remaining 5 percent in June 1963.

In 1966, Brown & Root laid the first marine pipeline in the North Sea; two years later, the company laid and buried the world's first 48-inch pipeline in offshore Kuwait.

In 1967, the Government Accounting Office alleged that Brown & Root had been unaccountable with public funds and allowed materials to be stolen.

These projects positioned Brown & Root for offshore platform work and the design of Chahbahar Baval Port for the Iranian Imperial Navy in 1975.

In January 1977, the company announced that its documents pertaining to offshore oil platform activities had been subpoenaed by a Federal grand jury to investigate possible antitrust charges.

The allegations of price fixing, led, a short time later, to a protracted legal battle with the proprietors of the South Texas Nuclear Project, ending in a $750 million settlement paid by Brown & Root in 1985.

Kellogg underwent numerous acquisitions and name changes through until 1987, when it was acquired by Dresser Industries, a provider of integrated services and project management for the oil and gas industry.

In 1989, Halliburton acquired another major engineering and construction contractor, C. F. Braun Inc., of Alhambra California, and merged it into Brown & Root.

Brown & Root's parent had been growing significantly over the past several years through a series of acquisitions made under the leadership of Dick Cheney, who was named chairman, CEO, and president of Halliburton in 1995.

During 1998, when Cheney was in office, the company changed how it booked revenue related to cost overruns on billion-dollar contracts.

He had served as United States Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush and would eventually leave Halliburton in 2000 to join running mate George W. Bush on the Republican ticket in the upcoming presidential election.

A separate contract--capped at $7 billion--was drawn up for KBR in late 2002.

2003: Halliburton places KBR into bankruptcy as a result of a $4 billion asbestos settlement.

In 2006, KBR separated from Halliburton.

Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007, that it had separated from KBR, which had been its contracting, engineering, and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years.

On May 7, 2008, the company announced that it would acquire Birmingham, Alabama-based engineering and construction firm BE&K for $550 million.

The company announced on November 7, 2017, that KBR secured a contract to provide astronaut medical support services for the European Space Agency's European Astronaut Center Space Medicine Office in Cologne, Germany.