50+ Lifestyles

The Flag

The idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885.
BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as ‘Flag Birthday’. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as ‘Flag Birthday’, or ‘Flag Day’.

In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14th, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children’s celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating.

Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: “I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself.”

Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

Test your  knowledge of the history of the American flag:

1. Which birthday of the national Flag, is going to be celebrated this year?
a. 233  b. 225   c. 227 

2. Since when has the current U.S. national flag become effective?
a. June 4, 1969   b. June 14, 1976   c. July 4, 1960  

3. How many changes had the Flag undergone since the first National Flag was born?
a. 50   b. 25   c. 27

4. During whose Presidency the legislation to limit the number of stripes to 13 was enacted?
a. George Washington b. James Monroe c. John Adams

5. Name the State, the annexation of which led to the inclusion of the 50th star on the canton?
a. Hawaii   b. California   c. Alaska  

6. During whose Presidency the war with the British broke out for the second time in the post Independence period?
a. Thomas Jefferson  b. James Madison  c. Andrew Jackson 

7. Who is said to have designed the Flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the National Anthem?          a. John Hulbert  b. Mary Y. Pickersgill  c. Betsy Rose 

8. Betsy Ross, the legendary tailor of the first Stars and Stripes, was the widow of a Revolutionist. Name him.
a. Scott Key b. John Ross c. Paul Revere  

9. Which of the following Presidents signed a legislation making Flag Day a day of national observance?
a. Harry Truman b. Abraham Lincoln c. John Tyler 

10. On Flag Day you are supposed to say the pledge of allegiance to the national flag. How many words does it take to make this pledge?
a. 32 b. 31 c. 26

Answers

1.a-233,

2.c-July 4, 1960,

3.c-27,

4.b-James Monroe,

5.a-Hawaii,

6.b-James Madison,

7.b-Mary Y. Pickersgill,

8.b-John Ross,

9.a-Harry Truman,

10. b-31