JEDEC are doing a lot of that work these days, but I suspect that back when the 74 series were new and dynosaurs roamed the earth it was probably a case of one manufacturer (Possibly TI or National or someone like that) bringing out logic in this new fangled (and scary fast, propagation times below 100ns) TTL stuff and everyone else jumping on board.
I would note that there HAVE been instances where components having the same part number from diffrent manufacturers have had different behaviour.
There is not (and should not be) an authority in such things, but you try selling a memory chip that does not have JEDEC pinning and signalling levels....
Regards, Dan.