President Trump shares birthday with Flag Day. 10 things to know about national holiday
During the Revolutionary War, the infant United States of America flew several different flags.
That all changed on June 14, 1777, when Congress passed the Flag Resolution of 1777, establishing the U.S. flag with 13 alternating stripes of red and white, and a union of white stars on a blue field. While the number of stars has changed over the last 248 years, the overall design has not.
But it took more than 170 years before Flag Day became a national holiday, celebrated on June 14 every year.
"The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing, according to the official Flag Code."
'Flag Day is an honor and tradition that displays the national flag with pride and happiness," said Anniston Army Depot Sgt. Maj. Happiness Brown on army.mil. "It is an annual observance which reminds us of the dedication and sacrifices made by our military service members. It's also a time to pray for our troops, those at home and abroad."
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution on the new country's flag design.
"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," the resolution read.
A flag of this design was first carried into battle less than three months later, on Sept. 11, 1777, in the Battle of the Brandywine, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"In the late 1800s, schools all over the United States held Flag Day programs to contribute to the Americanization of immigrant children, and the observance caught on with individual communities," according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14, according to the Library of Congress. Both Wilson, in 1916, and President Coolidge, in 1927, issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as National Flag Day.
Congressional legislation designating the date as national Flag Day wasn't signed into law until 1949 by President Harry Truman. The legislation also called upon the president to issue a Flag Day proclamation every year.
President Trump was born on Flag Day on June 14, 1946. "I am blessed to have shared my birthday with the Star Spangled Banner and the U.S. Army," he said.
➤ US Army's 250th anniversary a celebration that coincides with Trump's birthday. How to attend
In 2017, he proclaimed not only Flag Day but Flag Week, saying, "On Flag Day, we honor the symbol that reminds us that we are one Nation under God, united in our pursuit of liberty and justice for all.
"By honoring our flag, we pay due respect to the patriots and heroes who have laid down their lives in defense of the liberty it represents.
"The Congress also requested, in 1966, that the President annually issue a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as 'National Flag Week' and call upon citizens of the United States to display the flag during that week."
"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," according to the Library of Congress.
There have been 27 official versions of the flag, but the arrangement of the stars has varied according to the flag-makers' preferences until 1912. That's when President Taft standardized the then-new flag's 48 stars, according to the Library of Congress.
That changed when Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959.
The current version of the flag dates to July 4, 1960.
The current American flag was designed by Bob G. Heft, a high school student from Lancaster, Ohio, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.
"Even though Bob's history teacher gave him a B- for not knowing how many states the Union had, Bob submitted his design to the White House (unprompted) in anticipation of Hawaii and Alaska joining the Union. To his surprise, President Eisenhower called him! Today, it's Bob Heft's 1958 design — showing 50 stars in a field that included five rows of six stars and four rows of five stars — which is now our 50-star American flag."
Heft's teacher changed his grade to an A.
The Continental Congress left no record explaining why it chose red, white and blue for the country's new flag.
In 1782, the Congress of the Articles of Confederation chose the colors for the Great Seal of the United States with these meanings:
white for purity and innocence
red for valor and hardiness
blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice
The U.S. Flag Code provides guidelines on how to display and care for the U.S. flag. Flags should always hang freely but never with the stars down, except as a distress signal.
The U.S. flag flies above any other flag.
Never use the flag for decoration. Use bunting with the blue on top, then white, then red.
It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, the flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated at night.
When a flag becomes unfit to fly, it should be destroyed with dignity.
Do not let the flag touch the ground.
Do not fly flag upside down unless there is an emergency.
Do not carry the flag flat, or carry things in it.
Do not use the flag as clothing.
Do not store the flag where it can get dirty.
Do not use it as a cover.
Do not fasten it or tie it back. Always allow it to fall free.
Do not draw on, or otherwise mark the flag.
No. The flag should be flown at full-staff, at the top of the pole on Flag Day.
No, Flag Day is not a federal holiday, but the president traditionally proclaims its observance every year. The date, June 14, remains the same, no matter which day of the week it falls.
Here are 2025 federal holidays:
Jan. 1: New Year's Day
Jan. 20: Inauguration Day; Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday. Many state and local governments designation it as Presidents Day.
May 26: Memorial Day
June 19: Juneteenth
July 4: Independence Day
Sept. 1: Labor Day
Oct. 13: Columbus Day
Nov. 11: Veterans Day
Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day
Dec. 25: Christmas Day
Contributing: Janet Loehrke, USA Today Network
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 10 things to know about Flag Day, President Trump's birthday
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The woman often credited with sewing the first national U.S. flag — at the request of George Washington himself, her descendants claimed — might have been puzzled by Saturday's modern Flag Day. In Betsy Ross' day, flags marked ships and told soldiers where they should move in the confusion of battlefield smoke and noise. The intense reverence many Americans feel for Old Glory arose from the Civil War, when the need to keep the banner aloft in battle led the Union army to treat the deadly job of flag bearer as a high honor — and men responded with fatal heroics. The first, local Flag Day observances came after the Civil War and eventually a federal law designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, under World War I combat veteran Harry Truman. He declared in a proclamation the next year that the U.S. flag symbolizes freedom and 'protection from tyranny.' Americans' attachment to their flag is imbued with feelings that in other nations might attach to a beloved monarch or an official national religion. The flag is a physical object 'that people can relate to,' said Charles Spain, director of the Flag Research Center in Houston. 'If you put a flag on a pole, the wind makes it move,' Spain, a retired Texas Court of Appeals justice, added. 'Therefore, the flag is alive.' What does Flag Day celebrate? The holiday marks the date in 1777 that the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag for what to Great Britain were rebellious American colonies. It set the now-familiar 13 alternating horizontal stripes of red and white, one for each self-declared U.S. state, along with the blue upper quadrant with white stars. The Journals of Congress from 1777 says that the stars represented 'a new constellation,' but a 1818 law mandated one white star for each state. National observances for Flag Day began well ahead of the law signed by Truman, with a proclamation issued by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Wilson's action came several decades after communities began Flag Day celebrations. In 1891, Philadelphia held its first — at one of Ross' former homes — and it evolved into an annual, weeklong Flag Fest. The small village of Waubeka, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, claims the first observance in 1885. According to the National Flag Day Foundation headquartered there, a 19-year-old teacher in a one-room school, Bernard Cigrand, put a small flag on his desk and had students write essays about what the flag meant to them. He advocated a national holiday for decades as he worked as a dentist in the Chicago area. When did the U.S. flag become sacred to many Americans? Lisa Acker Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House historical site in Philadelphia, said that for Ross, conferring with Washington would have been the key point of her account. The U.S. flag wasn't as venerated before the Civil War in 1861-65 as it is now. Keeping flags aloft was crucial to maneuvering troops in Civil War battles, and that made flag bearers big targets for the enemy. They couldn't shoot back and had to stand tall, said Ted Kaye, secretary for the North American association for flag scholars, known as vexillologists. Both sides' propaganda told soldiers that carrying a flag into battle was an honor reserved for the most morally fit — and that view took hold, Kaye said. One Michigan cavalry regiment's red flag declared, 'Fear Not Death --Fear Dishonor.' 'This created this cult of honor around these battle flags, and around, by extension, the national flag,' Kaye said. Why was the Civil War so important? Civil War soldiers showed extraordinary courage under fire to keep their colors aloft, and multiple flag bearers died in single battles, said Matt VanAcker, who directs a now decades-old project at the Michigan Capitol to conserve flags from the Civil War and later conflicts. Michigan has collected about 240 old battle flags and had a display in its Capitol rotunda for decades. 'Many of the flags in our collection are covered with bullet holes,' VanAcker said. 'A lot of them have blood stains — the physical evidence of their use on the battlefield.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
The reverence for Old Glory that inspired Flag Day arose decades after Betsy Ross sewed her first
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The woman often credited with sewing the first national U.S. flag — at the request of George Washington himself, her descendants claimed — might have been puzzled by Saturday's modern Flag Day. In Betsy Ross' day, flags marked ships and told soldiers where they should move in the confusion of battlefield smoke and noise. The intense reverence many Americans feel for Old Glory arose from the Civil War, when the need to keep the banner aloft in battle led the Union army to treat the deadly job of flag bearer as a high honor — and men responded with fatal heroics. The first, local Flag Day observances came after the Civil War and eventually a federal law designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, under World War I combat veteran Harry Truman. He declared in a proclamation the next year that the U.S. flag symbolizes freedom and 'protection from tyranny.' Americans' attachment to their flag is imbued with feelings that in other nations might attach to a beloved monarch or an official national religion. The flag is a physical object 'that people can relate to,' said Charles Spain, director of the Flag Research Center in Houston. 'If you put a flag on a pole, the wind makes it move,' Spain, a retired Texas Court of Appeals justice, added. 'Therefore, the flag is alive.' What does Flag Day celebrate? The holiday marks the date in 1777 that the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag for what to Great Britain were rebellious American colonies. It set the now-familiar 13 alternating horizontal stripes of red and white, one for each self-declared U.S. state, along with the blue upper quadrant with white stars. The Journals of Congress from 1777 says that the stars represented 'a new constellation,' but a 1818 law mandated one white star for each state. National observances for Flag Day began well ahead of the law signed by Truman, with a proclamation issued by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Wilson's action came several decades after communities began Flag Day celebrations. In 1891, Philadelphia held its first — at one of Ross' former homes — and it evolved into an annual, weeklong Flag Fest. The small village of Waubeka, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, claims the first observance in 1885. According to the National Flag Day Foundation headquartered there, a 19-year-old teacher in a one-room school, Bernard Cigrand, put a small flag on his desk and had students write essays about what the flag meant to them. He advocated a national holiday for decades as he worked as a dentist in the Chicago area. When did the U.S. flag become sacred to many Americans? Lisa Acker Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House historical site in Philadelphia, said that for Ross, conferring with Washington would have been the key point of her account. The U.S. flag wasn't as venerated before the Civil War in 1861-65 as it is now. Keeping flags aloft was crucial to maneuvering troops in Civil War battles, and that made flag bearers big targets for the enemy. They couldn't shoot back and had to stand tall, said Ted Kaye, secretary for the North American association for flag scholars, known as vexillologists. Both sides' propaganda told soldiers that carrying a flag into battle was an honor reserved for the most morally fit — and that view took hold, Kaye said. One Michigan cavalry regiment's red flag declared, 'Fear Not Death --Fear Dishonor.' 'This created this cult of honor around these battle flags, and around, by extension, the national flag,' Kaye said. Why was the Civil War so important? Civil War soldiers showed extraordinary courage under fire to keep their colors aloft, and multiple flag bearers died in single battles, said Matt VanAcker, who directs a now decades-old project at the Michigan Capitol to conserve flags from the Civil War and later conflicts. Michigan has collected about 240 old battle flags and had a display in its Capitol rotunda for decades. Replicas have replaced them so that the original banners — and pieces of banners — can be preserved as a physical link to the soldiers who fought under them. 'Many of the flags in our collection are covered with bullet holes,' VanAcker said. 'A lot of them have blood stains — the physical evidence of their use on the battlefield.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Friday the 13th: A look back at $1.35 billion Mega Millions lottery win on the 'unlucky' date
If you're feeling lucky − or brave − there's a major lottery drawing on Friday the 13th. Though the number 13 typically is considered unlucky, that date and/or number has made someone a lottery winner before (see below). If a $5 Mega Millions ticket makes you a multimillionaire on Friday, June 13, you'll likely agree with that familiar lottery phrase, 'it could happen to you.' After no one matched all five numbers plus the Mega Ball in the Tuesday, June 10, Mega Millions drawing, the jackpot jumped $21 million overnight. The next chance to win happens to fall on what some may consider an unlucky date − Friday the 13th − for a cool $264 million prize. The cash option for the Friday, June 13, Mega Millions drawing would be $117.3 million, according to Mega Millions online. Interestingly, Friday the 13th kicks off a busy holiday weekend − Flag Day is Saturday, June 14, and Father's Day is Sunday, June 15. Below are times in history that the number 13 or Friday the 13th made someone a big lottery winner. According to a check on Powerball's site and a robust internet search, the Oct. 31, 2022, drawing was likely the first time the number 13 appeared twice in a Powerball drawing — on Halloween — for a $1 billion jackpot. Largely considered an unlucky number, spooky even, the fact that 13 was pulled twice in a big lottery drawing on Oct. 31 is a fun fact itself. However, no one was lucky enough to win that grand prize. Until ... Strangely, a few days after the Oct. 31, 2022, "number 13" Powerball drawing, something odd occurred − again. On Nov. 2, 2022, the Powerball drawing had an interesting numerical occurrence: The date of the drawing was 11/2/22, the jackpot was for $1.2 billion, and three of the winning numbers contained the date (11, 2 and 22). Coincidence? You be the judge. ▶ If you have a fear of the number 13 AND Halloween, check out this wacky Powerball story. ▶ One, two, too ... That one time the Powerball winning numbers had a lot of ones and twos. Yes! A single ticket was purchased in Maine for the Jan. 13, 2023, Mega Millions drawing. The winner remains anonymous through a trust and accepted their winnings of $1.35 billion through the limited liability company LaKoma Island Investments LLC, according to a Feb. 22, 2023, story in USA TODAY. Jan. 13, 2023, was Friday the 13th. The number 13 typically is referred to as an unlucky number, and it's associated with horror films. Fun fact: Three tickets purchased in California, Florida and Tennessee won the Jan. 13, 2016, Powerball drawing, splitting $1.586 billion. In 2016, FLORIDA TODAY reported Maureen Smith and David Kaltschmidt bought their winning Powerball ticket at a Publix in Melbourne Beach. While Jan. 13, 2023, was a Friday the 13th, Jan. 13, 2016, was not (it was a Wednesday). The odds of a billion-dollar jackpot being won on the same date going forward? Likely pretty low. Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Friday the 13th: Superstitious date was lucky for Mega Millions winner
