Five Fast Flag Facts

You’re a grand old flag
You’re a high-flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You’re the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave! – George M. Cohan, “You’re A Grand Old Flag”


Happy Flag Day!


1. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: "… the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."

2. The earliest reference to the suggestion of a "Flag Day" is cited in Kansas: a Cyclopedia of State History, published by Standard Publishing Company of Chicago in 1912. It credits George Morris of Hartford, Connecticut: To George Morris of Hartford, Conn., is popularly given the credit of suggesting "Flag Day," the occasion being in honor of the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. The city of Hartford observed the day in 1861, carrying out a patriotic program, praying for the success of the Federal arms and the preservation of the Union.

3. In Waubeka, Wisc., in 1885, school teacher Bernard J. Cigrand held the first recognized Flag Day observance. In June 1886, he first publicly proposed an annual observance of the birth of the United States flag in "The Fourteenth of June," published in the Chicago Argus. In June 1888, he advocated the holiday speaking before the "Sons of America," a Chicago group and founders of the American Standard, a magazine to promoting reverence of American emblems.

4. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

5. The largest Flag Day parade is held annually in Troy, New York, which bases its parade on the Quincy parade and typically draws 50,000 spectators.