StarWars.com has posted the latest history of the 501st Legion. If you have not checked out past posts on this topic I strongly suggest that you do. Written by Albin Johnson, the man who founded the 501st and took them from one lone trooper to 20,000+ worldwide!
To understand the history of the 501st Legion, and organized Star Wars costuming as a whole, sometimes we need to skip around the timeline. Starting in 1998 after the first big meeting of stormtroopers at Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA, things leaped forward at different speeds on different fronts and in different parts of the globe. A crucial part involved the celebrities of Star Wars themselves: cast and crew from the movies as well as authors and artists who kept Star Wars strong in the years between trilogies. Their participation in fandom would make for a beautiful relationship over the next two decades.
