Badge of Military Merit

(440.com) - U.S. General George Washington wanted to honor several courageous soldiers of the revolutionary war with a Badge of Military Merit. So, on this day in 1782, he ordered the creation of a purple, cloth heart with a silver, braided edge.
... On the bicentennial of the first U.S. President's birthday, February 22, 1932, the badge was reinstated. This time it was called the Order of the Purple Heart, a purple-enameled, gold-bordered heart with a profile of Washington in the center. Continued