The history of merit badges in the Boy Scouts of America has
historically been tracked by categorizing them into a series of merit
badge types. Merit badges have been an integral part of the Scouting
program since the start of the movement in Great Britain in 1908.
Scouting came to the United States in 1910; the BSA quickly issued an
initial list of just 14 merit badges, but did not produce or award
them. In 1911, the BSA manufactured the first official 57 merit badges
and began awarding them. The number of badges available has been as
high as 140 and, as of 2006, is 121. Merit badge types are
identifiable by the cloth and manufacturing process used to make them.
The classification of badges into types came about as a way for
collectors to categorize and classify their collections. Merit badge
collectors often collect other Scouting memorabilia as well.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_merit_badges_%28Boy_Scouts_of_Ameri…
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sold Florida to the United States for
five million U.S. dollars.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams-On%C3%83%C2%ADs_Treaty)
1876:
The Johns Hopkins University, named after philanthropist Johns
Hopkins, was founded.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University)
1943:
Members of the White Rose Society were found guilty of treason and
guillotined by the Nazi regime in Germany.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose)
1959:
Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 automobile race.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytona_500)
1997:
Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the birth of
a cloned sheep named Dolly.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_the_sheep)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy." -- George Washington
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington)