History
The version of the passport invented by King Henry V of England is considered by some to be the earliest identity document.
Photographs began to be attached to passports and other "photo IDs" in the early decades of the twentieth century, after photography became widespread.
Before World War I, most people did not have or need an identity document.
The shape and size of identity cards was standardized in 1985 by ISO/IEC 7810.
Some modern identity documents are smart cards—they include a difficult-to-forge embedded integrated circuit—standardized in 1988 by ISO/IEC 7816.
Read more about this topic: Identity Document
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)