REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Today is National Flag Day. Never heard of it? Yeah, me neither.
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. According to the National Flag Day Foundation, Flag Day was born on June 14, 1885, after Bernard Cigrand, a 19-year-old teacher in Waubeka, Wisc., placed a flag on his desk and assigned essays on its significance. It took two presidents and an act of Congress, but years later Flag Day became official.
In the “crowning achievement” of Cigrand’s life, on May 30 1916, President Woodrow Wilson called for a day of observance for the flag. Then, in August 1949, President Truman signed off on the declaration from Congress, which officially marked June 14 as National Flag Day. While Cigrand died in 1932, he received his glory posthumously in 2004 when Congress voted unanimously to recognize Flag Day’s origins in Ozaukee County, Wisc.. Though the day is not a federal holiday, many cities hold Flag Day parades in honor of Old Glory.
Interesting side-note: According to The Boston Globe, before the colonists chose the official flag, they fought under whatever banner was on hand, “regimental flags, homemade insignia, green, blue, what-have-you.”