10 Surprising Things You Didn't Know About the Boy Scouts

February 8 is National Boy Scouts Day. The Boy Scouts of America (recently renamed Scouts BSA and made gender-inclusive) has been around for 109 years; here are ten facts you might not have known about scouts.

Robert Baden-Powell was a colonel in the British Army during the second Boer War in 1899. When he and his troops found themselves surrounded-and vastly outnumbered-by the Dutch colonists, Baden-Powell enlisted a local cadet corps, 12- to 15-year-olds who wore khaki uniforms and wide-brimmed hats (sound familiar?) to help out. The boys relayed messages and acted as guards and literal scouts, leaving Baden-Powell's adult troops free to fight.

In 1908, Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys, which focused on skills of the outdoors; Boy Scout troops began popping up across the U.K. The United States' version, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), was formally established on February 8, 1910.

In 1914, Baden-Powell announced a junior section of the Boy Scouts for youths aged 8 to 10. He asked his friend, author Rudyard Kipling, if they might adopt part of the framework of the 1894 classic The Jungle Book. The Cub Scouts meet in "dens" or "packs"; the den leader is sometimes called "Akela," after the head wolf from the novel. Baden-Powell also developed some Cub Scout traditions-like the "Grand Howl" and "Council Rock" meetings-in clear reference to events in The Jungle Book.

Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Andorra are the only countries in the world that do not have Scouting organizations. The American program is the second-largest in the world, with the national organization claiming over 2.4 million members. As of 2012, the Gerakan Pramuka Indonesia, or Indonesian Scout Movement, had more than 21 million members, making it by far the largest Scout association worldwide.

One of the young men selling bonds was a German-American by the name of Theodor Seuss Geisel-the future Dr. Seuss. His grandfather bought $1,000 worth of bonds, catapulting Geisel to one of the top ten Boy Scout bond salesmen spots in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts.

In May 1918, former president Theodore Roosevelt presided over an award ceremony honoring their accomplishments, but was only supplied nine medals; when Geisel, the last one on stage, approached TR, he reportedly demanded-with all his characteristic tenderness-“What’s this little boy doing here?”

The incident left Dr. Seuss with a lifelong fear of public appearances.

William Dickson Boyce, the man who founded the American chapter of the Boy Scouts, was a Chicago newspaperman. Another three-named newspaperman, New York's Hearst, was a competitive soul. In May 1910, he founded his own youth organization: the American Boy Scouts (ABS). His group went on outdoor trips and volunteered just like the BSA lads-but they also carried firearms. They had mock battles and drills, and the boys shot at each other with blanks.

The BSA, represented by former Supreme Court Justice Charles Evan Hughes, eventually sued its militaristic counterpart and received an injunction preventing them from using the terms "Boy Scouts," "scouting," or any variations.

Full disclosure: Hearst Magazine Media is Popular Mechanics' parent company. So far we've never been asked (or allowed) to bring rifles to work.

Other badges that have gone under the axe:

-Nut Culture badge (know how to properly care for nut trees)

-Stalking badge (tracking wildlife)

-Pathfinding (being a one-man GPS)

-Taxidermy badge (self-explanatory)

-Consumer buying badge (bargain hunting and haggling)

-Invention (required the Scout to obtain a patent)

Presidents John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama were Scouts in their youth (honorable mention: Jimmy Carter was a Scoutmaster). JFK was the first Scout to become president; Ford was the first-and, to date, only-Eagle Scout president.

Titled "Checkmate," the column ran from 1966 to 1970 and focused on chess strategies. Fischer answered reader questions, presented puzzles and explained his reasoning, and reflected on his path to chess stardom. In a December 1966 column, he writes, "I liked other games like Monopoly and Parcheesi, but I found chess was much more exciting because it presented a greater challenge-there was no factor of luck involved." (The columns have since been collected into a book.)

Rockwell, master of iconic, idyllic Americana, had a 64-year-long relationship with the BSA. He was appointed art editor of Boys' Life magazine at age 19; from 1924 onward, he contributed illustrations for the Scouts' yearly calendar for free, and also illustrated many of the magazine's covers. All told, he created 471 images-for periodicals, guidebooks, calendars, and promotional materials-for the Scouts.

James Irwin (Apollo 15) was the only moonwalker not to have been any class of Scout at all. Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, actually radioed into a Boy Scouts of America National Jamboree on his way to the moon in 1969: "Hello to all my fellow Scouts at Farragut State Park in Idaho…Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes."