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The Flag of Canada is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted to replace the Union Flag. The Canadian Red Ensign had been unofficially used since the 1890s and was approved by a 1945 Order-in-Council for use "wherever place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag". In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed a committee to resolve the issue, sparking a serious debate about a flag change. Out of three choices, the maple leaf design by George F. G. Stanley was chosen. The flag made its first appearance on February 15, 1965; the date is now celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day. Other flags have been created for use by Canadian officials, government bodies, and military forces. Most of these flags contain the maple leaf motif in some fashion, either by having the Canadian flag charged in the canton, or by including maple leaves in the design. The Royal Union Flag is also an official flag in Canada, used as a symbol of Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations, and of its allegiance to the Crown. The Royal Union Flag forms a component of other Canadian flags, notably the provincial flags of Manitoba and Ontario. (more...)

In the news

• Flooding (rising Des Moines River pictured) continues in the Midwestern United States, leading to the evacuation of thousands of homes.
• Irish voters reject the Treaty of Lisbon in a referendum, thus putting into question the reform program of the European Union.
• Pakistan condemns a United States-led air strike near the border with Afghanistan that allegedly killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops, in clashes that also killed eight Taliban militants.
• Amid an outbreak of tornadoes and derechos in central and eastern North America, a tornado hits a Boy Scout camp in Iowa, killing four.
• Japan's House of Councillors passes a censure motion against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the first such motion to be passed since World War II.
• Sudan Airways Flight 109 crashes on landing at Khartoum International Airport in Khartoum, Sudan, killing dozens.
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  Did you know...

  From Wikipedia's newest articles:

  

• ... that there are at least 296 historic places listed on the U.S. National Register in Chicago, including a German U-boat (pictured)?
• ... that the North Vietnamese Foreign Minister Xuan Thuy was first arrested at age sixteen and sent to a penal colony at eighteen, as a member of the underground communist anti-colonial movement?
• ... that Walter Brennan starred in the 1964–1965 ABC sitcom The Tycoon as an eccentric chairman of the board of the fictitious Thunder Corporation?
• ... that the Espada Cemetery was the first formally sanctioned burial ground in Havana, Cuba?
• ... that Hall of fame coach Al Arbour coached the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League three different times?
• ... that Christopher Smart's Hymns and Spiritual Songs were composed in a mental asylum where the author was held for "religious mania"?
• ... that Madagascar's unique wildlife, such as the Red-bellied Lemur, is one of the country's main tourist attractions?
• ... that the Latham Confederate Monument of Hopkinsville, Kentucky was supposed to honor both Confederate and Union soldiers?
  
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