How Flag Day got its start

U.S. Army Air Corps World War II veteran Howard Mautner is shown with an American flag during an event at Highland Memorial Park in Ocala. [File photo by Bruce Ackerman]

Flag Day is commemorated each year in the United States on June 14. Though Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, the day remains significant nonetheless, as it traces its origins all the way back to 1777.

The Second Continental Congress formally adopted the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. That resolution noted certain characteristics of the new flag, including the alternating red and white stripes that remain part of the flag that is celebrated each June 14.

Flag Day is one of various notable events and holidays commemorated in June, a list that includes Father’s Day, Juneteenth and the summer solstice. That can make it easy for Flag Day to get lost in the proverbial shuffle, but the “Farmer’s Almanac” notes it is customary for the sitting president of the United States to encourage Americans to display the flag outside of their homes and businesses each June 14. The flag is flown from all public buildings on Flag Day, which the almanac reports is another rich tradition that dates back 1877 and the centennial of the flag’s adoption.

President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation on June 14, 1916, that designated the day as Flag Day going forward. Thirty-three years after Wilson’s proclamation, the U.S. Congress officially established June 14 as National Flag Day.

One notable tidbit Americans can consider this Flag Day is the connection between the flag and seamstress Betsy Ross. Many American schoolchildren were taught that Ross designed and sewed the first American flag, but historians have since discredited that legend. The “Farmer’s Almanac” notes that many historians now believe George Washington already had a design for a flag with 13 red and white alternating stripes and 13 six-pointed stars set in a circle when he visited Ross in Philadelphia. And while historians do not doubt Ross sewed a flag reflecting the design Washington brought with him when visiting the seamstress, it’s hard to confirm if she in fact sewed the first flag.