Wikipedia has a long list of standard port numbers for various protocols.
Does anyone know how some of these numbers were chosen?
EDIT: I'm asking how/why the original developers chose the numbers, not where the list comes from.
What are the origins of standard port numbers?
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The first reference to a registry of well known numbers seems to be RFC 322, from 1972. RFC 433 is the first official compilation of such a registry. There is a bit of background on Wikipedia describing the history of the IANA which talks about this.
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Read the wikipedia page on the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). Early on the designers of the protocols picked the port numbers and maintained a registry. Overtime these became the official numbers and people agreed to use them for those protocols and not for other programs. Eventually these became codified in the RFCs and the IANA was born to manage the process.
This mailing list thread has some insight