Stuff You Missed in History Class

Credit cards are integral to the way we bank and shop today, but many of the technologies involved in their daily use were invented in the last 65 years. How did we get from written notes to track money owed for purchases to tap-and-go spending?
Research:
“15 U.S.C. United States Code, 2011 Edition. Title 15 - COMMERCE AND TRADE. CHAPTER 41 - CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION. SUBCHAPTER IV - EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY.” https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title15/html/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapIV.htm
Bellamy, Edward. “Looking Backward, 2000-1887.” Boston. Ticknor and Company. 1888. https://archive.org/details/lookingbackward200bell/page/116/mode/2up?q=credit+card
“Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.” Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/credit-card-accountability-responsibility-disclosure-act-2009-credit-card-act
“Diner Club members Don’t Carry Money.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Feb. 24, 1955. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1350764752/?match=1&terms=diners%20club&search-id=d6ce7cc5-a22d-460f-b073-94cca88ba0f5&search-rank=2
“Diners’ Club Enjoying Rapid Rate of Growth.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. Sept. 3, 1956. https://www.newspapers.com/image/176273766/?match=2&terms=diners%20club&search-id=d6ce7cc5-a22d-460f-b073-94cca88ba0f5&search-rank=1
“The EMV Chip Card Transition: Background, Status, and Issues for Congress.” Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R43925
“Equal Credit Opportunity Act.” Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/equal-credit-opportunity-act
Evans, David S. “Paying with plastic : the digital revolution in buying and borrowing.” MIT Press. Cambridge, Mass. 2005.
Fabry, Merrill. “Now You Know: What Was the First Credit Card?” Time. Oct 19, 2016. https://time.com/4512375/first-credit-card/
Farkas, Jami. “Whatever Happened to the Diners Club Card?” Yahoo! Finance. Sept. 9, 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/whatever-happened-diners-club-card-230117151.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAA3P5_xS_5nMkc0EsXkTroiEv2nG8H_LXFv8VTiRzqovilUtf0DDwHcz8hGGINvlsy1G4vVrH_jpZtaIErBhfH_WsEmo1wRo71aimnfF3Xcqyv5o4CXiWVKMizRSZ2_mWyymC1rgEdiiYC-nSk4ga2rv7zI5eVwxPjMIB-RCY-5N
Frankel, Robin Saks. “History Of Credit Cards: When Were Credit Cards Invented?” Forbes. Aug. 28, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/history-of-credit-cards/
Hyman, Louis. “Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink.” Princeton University Press. 2011.
“In 1850, three business rivals came together to form American Express.” American Express. March 18, 2025. https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/articles/colleagues-and-culture/in-1850--three-business-rivals-came-together-to-form-american-ex.html
Karp, Gregory. “What is a Diners Club card?” Nerdwallet. Nov. 6, 2025. https://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-cards/learn/what-is-a-diners-club-card
“The magnetic stripe.” IBM. https://www.ibm.com/history/magnetic-stripe
Mandell, Lewis and Sarah Holmes. “Diners Club Begins a New Industry.” Ebsco. 2021. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/diners-club-begins-new-industry/
“Milestones.” Diners Club International. https://www.dinersclub.com/about-us/history/
Musinski, Bob and Adriana Ocañas. “When Were Credit Cards Invented? A Timeline of Credit Cards From the 1930s to Now.” U.S. News and World Report. Sept. 4, 2026. https://money.usnews.com/credit-cards/articles/when-were-credit-cards-invented-a-timeline-of-credit-cards
“New Jersey Bank’s ‘Charg-It’ Gains National Prominence.” The Herald-News. Nov. 25, 1958. https://www.newspapers.com/image/525122428/?match=5&terms=Charg-It%20&search-id=e29e3416-81cd-4ce0-9912-aa77b0102cd1&search-rank=1
Nocera, Joe. “A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class.” Simon & Schuster. 2013.
O’Brien, Pam. “When Were Women Allowed to Open a Bank Account?” SoFi Learn. Aug, 4, 2026. https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/when-were-women-allowed-to-open-bank-account/
“Plastic Payments.” National Museum of American History. Smithsonian. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/value-money/online/innovations-money/plastic-payments
Rummel, David, et al. “Secret History of the Credit Card.” Frontline. PBS. November 23, 2004. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/showscredit/
“S.381 - 10 Percent Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Act.” https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/381
“Was the Credit Card Really Invented in Flatbush?” Flatbush History. https://www.flatbushhistory.com/articles/first-credit-card
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Anne of Brittany experienced a lot of loss from the time she was very young. As she aged and became more and more central to political events of her day, she remained dedicated to protecting the autonomy of the duchy of Brittany.
Research:
Britannica Editors. "Anne of Brittany". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Jan. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-of-Brittany
Abernethy, Susan. “Anne of Brittany.” Medievalists.net. https://www.medievalists.net/2016/05/anne-of-brittany-queen-of-france/
The History Blog. “Anne of Brittany’s heart reliquary returns to Blois.” 3/24/2014. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/29750
Colleter R, Bataille CP, Dabernat H, Pichot D, Hamon P, Duchesne S, et al. (2021) The last battle of Anne of Brittany: Solving mass grave through an interdisciplinary approach (paleopathology, biological anthropology, history, multiple isotopes and radiocarbon dating). PLoS ONE 16(5): e0248086. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248086
Francis II, duke of Brittany." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™, The Columbia UP, 2026. Gale OneFile: High School Edition, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A68575485/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=eb8754eb. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.
Rorimer, James J. “The Unicorn Tapestries Were Made for Anne of Brittany.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin , Summer, 1942, New Series, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer, 1942). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3257087
"Queen's 'heart' stolen from museum; Nantes thieves trigger alarm but get away with the 15th-century Anne of Brittany reliquary." Daily Telegraph [London, England], 16 Apr. 2018, p. 14. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A534833092/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2ca9a21e. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.
"Anne of Brittany." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 29, Gale, 2009. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631009161/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=eed786f7. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.
Cochrane-Wishart-Baillie, Constance Mary Elizabeth, Countess de la Warr. “A Twice Crowned Queen: Anne of Brittany.” London. Eveleigh Nash. 1906. https://archive.org/details/twicecrownedquee0000dela/
Sanborn, Helen J. “Anne of Brittany: The Story of a Duchess and Twice-crowned Queen.” Boston, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 1917. https://archive.org/details/anneofbrittanyst00sanb/
Kergourlay, Yann. “Anne of Brittany.” The Boleyn Files. 1/9/2014. https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/anne-brittany/
Nassiet, Michel. “Anne of Brittany.” Bécédia. 3/07/2023. https://bcd.bzh/becedia/en/anne-of-brittany
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This 2013 episode covers Princess Alexandra Amelie of Bavaria who was frail and she exhibited unusual behavior. She told her parents that she had swallowed a glass piano as a child, and was afraid that she would shatter.
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Tracy talks about how she came to love onions after disliking them as a child. Holly discusses her fear of heights, and questions evidence in Ludwig II's death.
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Bernhard von Gudden was renowned as a reformer of asylums in Germany. But that legacy has been eclipsed by his part in getting King Ludwig II of Bavaria deposed.
Research:
Bhattacharyya, Kalyan B. “Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden and the Mad King of Bavaria.” Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology vol. 20,4 (2017): 348-351. doi:10.4103/aian.AIAN_489_16
Crossland, David. “Suicide of Mad Ludwig was murder, says film‑maker.” The Times of London. June 29, 2018. https://www.thetimes.com/world/article/suicide-of-mad-ludwig-was-murder-says-film-maker-2x9s8hnkl
Danek, A et al. “The dream king's psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden (1824-1886). A life committed to rationality.” Archives of neurology vol. 46,12 (1989): 1349-53. doi:10.1001/archneur.1989.00520480093026
Dalvi, Madhusudan. “The Fairy Tale King and His Royal Psychiatrist: The Contribution to Neuroscience of Dr Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden, Psychiatrist to King Ludwig II – Psychiatry in History.” The British Journal of Psychiatry 222.5 (2023): 187–187
“Death in Lake Starnberg.” Bavarikon. https://www.bavarikon.de/en/exhibitions/king-ludwig-ii-of-bavaria-life-legacy-legend/disempowerment-and-death/death-in-lake-starnberg
“The death of King Ludwig II.” Cambridge University Library. https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/germanic-collections/about-collections/spotlight-archive/death-king-ludwig
Diethelm, Oskar. AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF SOMATIC TREATMENT IN PSYCHIATRY. 1939. American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 95, no. 5, American Psychiatric Publishing, Mar. 1939, pp. 1165–1179, doi:1176/ajp.95.5.1165
“John Conolly.” Royal College of Physicians. https://history.rcp.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/john-conolly
“Ludwig II. The Final Days of the Fairy Tale King: The Report.” Museum Starnberger See. https://www.museum-starnberger-see.de/en/exhibitions/upcoming/ludwig-ii/texts-and-audio-recordings/the-report
“Ludwig II. The Final Days of the Fairy Tale King: From the Autopsy Report of Ludwig II.” Museum Starnberger See. https://www.museum-starnberger-see.de/en/exhibitions/upcoming/ludwig-ii/texts-and-audio-recordings/autopsy-report
“Mad King Ludwig a Suicide.” The Philadelphia Times. June 15, 1886. https://www.newspapers.com/image/52212265/?fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjUyMjEyMjY1LCJpYXQiOjE3OTI1MjQ5OTQsImV4cCI6MTc5MjYxMTM5NH0.Y3yJW-PPNj0sg3HvMXT8ADdExIsxEbJ_2jQOnkNJPjDs_rHlGdri61QOCmh97k1NREVtpH0_u7oBOa_8sOWncQ
Müller, Jürgen L. “Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden, 1824–1886. 2002.” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 159, no. 3, American Psychiatric Publishing, Mar. 2002, p. 379, doi:1176/ajp.159.3.379
Neumann, Conny. “Was ‘Mad’ king Ludwig Murdered?” Der Spiegel. Nov. 7, 2011. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/fresh-doubt-about-suicide-theory-was-mad-king-ludwig-murdered-a-515924.html
“OTTO, MAD MONARCH OF BAVARIA, DEAD; The End Came Suddenly at Fuerstenried Castle, Near Munich. INSANE FOR 43 YEARS Nominally Succeeded His Mad Brother Ludwig, but Never Exercised Royal Power.” New York Times. Oct. 13, 1916. https://www.nytimes.com/1916/10/13/archives/otto-mad-monarch-of-bavaria-dead-the-end-came-suddenly-at.html
Sarikcioglu, Levent. “Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden: an outstanding scientist.” Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry vol. 78,2 (2007): 195. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.106633
Steinberg, Reinhard, and Peter Falkai. “Was King Ludwig II of Bavaria misdiagnosed by Gudden and his colleagues?.” European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience vol. 271,4 (2021): 799-807. doi:10.1007/s00406-020-01161-8
Taylor, Allen. “The 125th Anniversary of the Death of King Ludwig II.” The Atlantic. June 13, 2011. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/the-125th-anniversary-of-the-death-of-king-ludwig-ii/100085/
Workman, Charles. “Bernhard Von Gudden.” The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1336, 1886, pp. 285–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25268832. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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