Flag Day June 14

Flag Day – June 14

The origins of Flag Day date back to 1777 when on June 14 the Continental Congress proposed that the United States have a national flag instead of the British Union Jack and that 13 stars of the flag represented the 13 new states.

The flag has had much iteration since then, having been changed 26 times, to include standardization in 1912; the flag was last changed in 1959 with the admission to statehood of Alaska and Hawaii. It needs 64 pieces of fabric to make it. The current flag has 13 red and white alternating stripes (representing the original 13 states) and 50 stars, one for each state, on a blue background. It has been said that the white between the red stripes symbolizes the U.S. separation from Great Britain in the American Revolution. The red stripes are attributed to George Washington, but this has never been corroborated.

The first major public ceremony honoring the Stars and Stripes occurred in 1877, when on June 14 it was flown from every government building in honor of the centennial of the adoption of a national flag. The first official Flag Day was observed in Philadelphia in 1893, with New York following suit in1897. President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day in August, 1949, and it has been commemorated nationwide on that day ever since.