Short answers, pulled from the story.
Amadeo Pietro Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco on the 17th of October 1904. That institution merged with the Bank of America, Los Angeles, in 1928 and was renamed Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association on the 3rd of November 1930.
NationsBank of Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired BankAmerica in 1998 for $62 billion in what was then the largest bank acquisition in history. Although NationsBank was the nominal acquirer, the combined company took the better-known Bank of America name; the headquarters remained in Charlotte, and all SEC filings before 1998 are still listed under NationsBank.
Bank of America introduced the BankAmericard in 1958, one of the first credit cards linked directly to individual bank accounts. It was renamed Visa in 1977 and is one of the two dominant global card networks, the other being Mastercard, which descended from Interbank, a competing coalition launched in 1966.
Bank of America agreed to a nearly $17 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in August 2014 over the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities, believed to be the largest settlement in U.S. corporate history between a single company and the federal government. The deal included $9.65 billion in fines and $7 billion in consumer relief.
Bank of America announced its intention to buy Merrill Lynch on the 14th of September 2008, the same day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, because Merrill was within days of collapse. CEO Ken Lewis later testified before Congress that federal officials pressured him to complete the deal or face removal, a claim backed by internal emails including a threat from Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker.
Bank of America received a total of $45 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including $25 billion in fall 2008 and an additional $20 billion on the 16th of January 2009, along with a $118 billion guarantee on potential losses. The bank repaid the entire $45 billion by the 9th of December 2009.