My PL, HCI, and OS classes all used the first day or two to establish the history of those fields to give context, and I think that really helped solidify my understanding of the material. This should definitely be more commonplace!
Yeah that's really helpful! Although I guess I'm more wondering about a 'history of CS' course. One thing that has stuck with me for years the course on modernism and post modernism in first semester of first year of design school. It really helped to put everything into context.