GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Re: In 1860, the Philological Society launched its effort to

In this question, the most critical factor is the year 1860.

Point 1 - The project was launched 1860. There is no event that occurred earlier than that and hence our beginning point should be in simple past namely ‘was’. Had been in A, was being in C and was about to be in E are all incorrect. We are now left with B and D.

Point 2 – In 1860, the project was just conceived ( meaning was born - don’t say conception is not the same as birth). But it was going to take another 60 years