Flag Day

Beginning as early as 1885, June 14th of each year was officially established as National Flag Day on August 3rd, 1949, after President Truman signed an Act of Congress to designate the day as such. Inspired by a schoolteacher named BJ Cigrand in Fredonia, Wisconsin, it is a remembrance of the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – a resolve that saw the 13 United States be the 13 red and white alternating stripes and the Union be the 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.  

Beginnings of Flag Day 

On June 14, 1885, a schoolteacher arranged students from a public school to celebrate the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes, the schoolteacher was BJ Cigrand and the observance was coined by him as ‘Flag Birthday’. Magazines and news reporters in the area quickly picked up this event and started to discuss this observance over the following years. His influence led to another teacher in New York City, George Balch, to display his own admiration of Flag Day in 1889. These small observances started a movement prompting larger institutions like the State Board of Education of New York and the Betsy Ross House in Philidelphia to recognize the attention these observances were receiving and adopt the Flag Day celebrations. These smaller observances conducted by BJ Cigrand and George Balch were seen as the catalysts that transformed the holiday as we see it today, also with some help from President Woodrow Wilson who issued a presidential proclamation establishing June 14 as national Flag Day. 

How Flag Day is Celebrated 

Now-a-days Flag Day is celebrated by the bearing of Red, White and Blue in the front of houses and businesses. Although Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, this does not stop government buildings from displaying the flag. 

Across the United States many patriotic communities hold parades, Troy, New York being the largest, attracting over 100,000 participants each year. 

Coincidentally, June 14 holds other significance in the origination of Flags within the U.S. as it when California adopted The Bear Flag as it’s state flag upon joining the Union as the 31st state in 1850. The Flag symbolizes the independence of the former province Alta California from Mexican general in command Sonoma.