WASHINGTON, D.C. - Flag Day is nationally recognized each year on June 14 to commemorate the birthday of the American Flag. In 2023, the star-spangled banner is celebrating its 246th year.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the flag’s design was approved and early renditions were created in 1777 - however, the first observance of Flag Day didn’t occur until about a century later. The original resolution approving the flag’s design read as follows:
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“That the flag of the United States shall be of thirteen stripes of alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white in a blue field, representing the new constellation.”
Since then, the flag has gone through about 27 different iterations before becoming the 50-star flag we know today, but it retains the original 13 stripes, symbolizing the 13 original English colonies the United States consisted of during the flag’s initial design. While that original 13-star design is famously attributed to Betsy Ross, no documentation exists to confirm she actually made the first-ever American flag.
Several local observations of Flag Day took place in the late 1800s, eventually leading to state-level recognition starting with New York in 1889. School boards across the state were required to observe Flag Day each year thereafter, and in 1897, the governor ordered American flags to be displayed on all public buildings in the state. However, New York did not officially declare Flag Day a legal holiday.
Pennsylvania became the first state to establish Flag Day as a legal holiday on May 7, 1937. While the day is observed and recognized nationally, it is not considered a legal U.S. holiday - Pennsylvania remains the only state which recognizes it as a legal holiday.
Several efforts were made to establish a national observance of National Flag Day - including from Presidents Wilson in 1916 and Coolidge in 1927 - before President Harry Truman finally signed the national observance into law on August 3, 1949.
To learn more about the history behind Flag Day, visit the Department of Veterans Affairs website.
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