Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ralph Schneider and Frank McNamara created the first general-purpose charge card in 1950. This innovation solved the problem of paying without cash after they forgot their wallet at a New York restaurant. The card was called Diners Club and allowed customers to pay different merchants using the same card.
Bank of America launched the BankAmericard in 1958 in Fresno, California. This card introduced the concept of revolving credit where consumers could build a continuing balance of debt subject to interest. The card succeeded by breaking the cycle where consumers did not want to use a card that few merchants would accept.
All BankAmericard licensees united under the common brand Visa in 1976. Before this unification, the card was licensed to other banks around the United States and then around the world. The system was computerized in 1973 under the leadership of Dee Hock, the first CEO of Visa.
Mass mailings of unsolicited credit cards were outlawed in 1970 due to the financial chaos they caused. By the time the law came into effect, approximately 100 million credit cards had been dropped into the U.S. population. After 1970, only credit card applications could be sent unsolicited in mass mailings.
Barclaycard in the United Kingdom launched the first credit card outside the United States in 1966. Many cultures remained cash-oriented or developed alternative forms of cashless payments after this launch. France, for instance, was much quicker to develop and adopt chip-based credit cards due to strict regulations regarding bank overdrafts.
A Japanese law enabling credit card cash back came into force in 2010. A legal loophole in this system was quickly exploited by online shops dedicated to providing cash back as a form of easy loan with exorbitant rates. On the 19th of October 2010, Hideki Fukuba became the first operator of such an online cash back service to be charged by the police.