Flag Day

The 1777 Flag was the first official US flag, adopted by the Continental Congress on Saturday, June 14, 1777, when they passed this resolution:

“RESOLVED, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

The stripes remain as they were originally—13, seven red and six white—with more stars as each state was added, bringing us to 50.

In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a nation Flag Day on June 14. 

On Aug. 3, 1949, President Harry S. Truman officially declared June 14 as Flag Day.

After a British bombardment, Francis Scott Key responded to the sight of the American flag still flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry that he wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Sept. 14, 1814. It became our national anthem in 1931.

In 1892 inspired by the flag, James B. Upham and Francis Bellamy wrote The Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1969 Neil Armstrong planted an American flag on the moon.