Flag Day in the United States

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Flag of the United States

In the United States, Flag Day (more formally, National Flag Day), is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday.

Title 36 Sec. 110 of the US Code is the official statute on Flag Day, however it is at the President's discretion to proclaim officially the observance.

The largest Flag Day parade is held annually in Troy, NY. [1]

Framingham, MA also holds a yearly Flag Day parade, although in recent years a shrinking turnout has prompted the town to consider eliminating the event.

[edit] Competing claims

Several men are claimed to have played early instrumental roles in the establishment of a National Flag Day.

Perhaps the most fervent claim dates to 1885, when a schoolteacher, Bernard J. Cigrand, reportedly urged the students at the public school in Fredonia, Wisconsin, to observe June 14 as "Flag Birthday." He moved to Chicago to attend dental school, and in June 1886, wrote an article titled “The Fourteenth of June” which was published in the Chicago Argus newspaper. He continued to promote the idea and by June 1894, 300,000 children gathered in parks throughout Chicago to celebrate the day.

Another claim is made on behalf of William T. Kerr, a resident of Collier Township, Pennsylvania for a number of years, who founded the American Flag Day Association of Western Pennsylvania in 1888, became that organization's national chairman one year later, and served as such for fifty years. He attended Truman's 1949 signing of the Act of Congress which formally established the holiday.

An older and less cited claim is in Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, published by Standard Publishing Company (Chicago) in 1912. It credits George Morris of Hartford, Connecticut:

To George Morris of Hartford, Conn., is popularly given the credit of suggesting "Flag Day," the occasion being in honor of the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. The city of Hartford observed the day in 1861, carrying out a program of a patriotic order, praying for the success of the Federal arms and the preservation of the Union.