Saturday, June 14, commemorates the adoption of the United States flag, Rep., Chad Reichard (R-Franklin) reminds.
Since a 1916 proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson, this date has been marked as “Flag Day.” Congressional legislation designating that date as national Flag Day was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1949.
According to legend, in 1776, George Washington commissioned Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross to create a flag for the new nation. Scholars, however, credit the flag’s design to Francis Hopkinson, who also designed the Great Seal and first coin of the United States. Even so, Ross most likely met Washington and certainly sewed early American flags in her family’s Philadelphia upholstery shop.
To date, there have been 27 official versions of the flag, but the arrangement of the stars varied according to the flag-makers’ preferences until 1912 when President William Howard Taft standardized the then-new flag’s 48 stars into six rows of eight. The 49-star flag (1959-60), as well as the 50-star flag, also have standardized star patterns. The current version of the flag dates to July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state on August 21, 1959.
From 13 stars to 50, the American flag has been a symbol of freedom and liberty throughout the world. To learn more about the history of the American flag, click here.
To learn more about how to treat the flag and how to display it, read the United States Flag Code here.
