Alex Rampell of A16Z recently published a thread about the history of the credit card, focusing on Bank of America’s card that was mailed to 60,000 residents of Fresno.

While Diners club and American Express started before this (for meals, travel and entertainment), this was the first example of a revolving line of credit, with a card supported by all types of merchants. Mailing it to customers without any “approval” process was a genius way to jumpstart usage.

Bank of America also published an article with video on how everything got started; check it out here.