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… _______________________________ 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) _____________________ 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)