Flag Day-June 14

Flag Day is celebrated June 14 and commemorates the adoption of the American Flag by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. Flag Day was founded by a school teacher named Bernard J. Cigrand, who began observing the day with his class at Stony Hill School in Waubeka, Wisconsin. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing June 14th as Flag Day on May 30, 1916.

Some interesting facts about our flag:

-The American flag, as we know it today, consists of 13 horizontal red and white stripes, each representing the 13 original colonies of the United States, and a blue rectangle in the canton with 50 white, five-pointed stars representing the 50 states of the Union.

-The 1777 resolution did not set the size or proportions of the flag, or even what shape the constellation of stars should be. As a result, flags of the era showed the constellation of stars in different arrangements, and flags were made with differing proportions. It was not until 1912 that the flag’s design was standardized.

-A new star is added with the inclusion of every new state to the Union. The number of stars increased to 15 in 1795, 20 by 1818, and the trend continued. The 50th star was added with the inclusion of the state of Hawaii to the Union in 1959.

-The flag got its nickname, “Old Glory,” from William Driver, a Massachusetts-born resident of Nashville, Tennessee who hid his homemade flag from Confederate troops, unfurling it again when the city came under the control of federal troops.