ObservanceMonday, June 14, 2027
Flag Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on June 14
- Category
- Celebration
Flag Day falls on June 14, the anniversary of the 1777 resolution in which the Continental Congress declared that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes and thirteen stars. The observance is far younger than the flag, and its origin is contested: three men have been called the father of Flag Day by sources as official as Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
History
The resolution is one sentence, recorded in the Journals of the Continental Congress for Saturday, June 14, 1777: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." It appears without preamble, between Marine Committee business and John Paul Jones's appointment to command the Ranger. It said nothing about the stars' points, their arrangement, or the flag's proportions, so early flags scattered the stars, ranked them in rows, or set them in a circle. The flag drew little public notice at the time; its job was identifying ships and forts.
Betsy Ross is the name attached to it, and the record does not support the story. Congress's own flag handbook notes that although she made flags for fifty years, "there is no proof that she made the first Stars and Stripes," and that the circle-of-stars flag bearing her name did not appear until the 1790s. The claim surfaced in 1870, when her grandson William J. Canby read a paper recounting what he had heard as a boy — and Canby dated the alleged meeting to June 1776, a year before the resolution it supposedly inspired. The stars are credited instead, on stronger evidence, to Francis Hopkinson, who billed Congress for the work and was refused.
The observance accumulated claimants. A Flag Day celebration flew in Hartford in 1861, and the first national observance came on the flag's centennial in 1877. Bernard J. Cigrand had his pupils in Waubeka, Wisconsin mark June 14 as "Flag Birthday" in 1885; William T. Kerr is credited with founding the American Flag Day Association in Pittsburgh in 1888. The House recognized Cigrand's Wisconsin origin in 2004, then hedged it in 2010; Pennsylvania's marker gives the title to Kerr. No contemporaneous document settles it.
How the day reached the White House is better documented. Woodrow Wilson's Proclamation 1335 of May 30, 1916 asked that June 14 "be observed as Flag Day" — it suggested and requested, and established nothing — and the Congressional Record shows a congressman pressing for it on behalf of the Elks, whose lodges had marked the date since 1912. The statute came much later: a joint resolution approved August 3, 1949 designated June 14 as Flag Day and asked the president to proclaim it yearly.
Timeline
- 1777 — On June 14 the Continental Congress adopts the flag resolution: thirteen stripes, thirteen stars, "a new constellation."
- 1861 — The Stars and Stripes flies in a Flag Day celebration in Hartford, Connecticut, the earliest such claim.
- 1885 — Bernard J. Cigrand has his pupils in Waubeka, Wisconsin observe June 14 as "Flag Birthday."
- 1916 — Wilson's Proclamation 1335 of May 30 suggests and requests nationwide observance of June 14.
- 1949 — A joint resolution approved August 3 designates June 14 as Flag Day and asks for an annual proclamation.
How to observe
Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where the flag that became the anthem flew, runs Flag Day programs around its morning and evening flag changes. If you cannot get there, the flag itself is on view at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History — a thirty-by-forty-two-foot garrison flag sewn in 1813 by Mary Pickersgill with her daughter, two nieces, and an indentured servant named Grace Wisher, whom most accounts leave out.
The useful task at home is retiring a worn flag. The Flag Code says one no longer fit for display "should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning," and American Legion and VFW posts, scout troops and many government offices collect them. Check local fire rules first; synthetic flags can be hazardous to burn and are often better recycled.
Frequently asked questions
Is Flag Day a federal holiday?
No. The eleven legal public holidays are listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103, and Flag Day is not among them. Pennsylvania does list June 14 as a legal holiday, but that statute's effect is confined to banking and commercial paper, and the same act declares such days "secular or business days, for all other purposes." Nothing closes.
Who started Flag Day?
Nobody can say with confidence, and the official sources disagree. Congress credited Cigrand and Ozaukee County, Wisconsin in 2004 for an 1885 schoolroom observance; Pennsylvania's marker names Kerr; New York's claim dates to 1889 and Philadelphia's to 1893. Hartford's 1861 celebration predates all of them, and Congress's own handbook names no founder.
Did Betsy Ross make the first American flag?
There is no proof that she did. She was a working Philadelphia flagmaker who supplied the Pennsylvania State Navy in 1777, but the story of a commission from George Washington first appeared in 1870, told by her grandson from childhood memory, and it places the meeting a year before the resolution existed.
Is the flag flown at half-staff on Flag Day?
No. The Flag Code names Flag Day among the days the flag should especially be displayed, and Memorial Day is the only day in that list carrying a half-staff instruction.
When is Flag Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | June 14 | Monday |
| 2028 | June 14 | Wednesday |
| 2029 | June 14 | Thursday |
| 2030 | June 14 | Friday |
| 2031 | June 14 | Saturday |
Sources
- Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 8 (1777), p. 464, Saturday June 14, 1777 (Library of Congress) — https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llscd/lljc008/lljc008.pdf → the wording of the flag resolution, and its placement between Marine Committee business and John Paul Jones's appointment to command the Ranger.
- U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Printing, Our Flag, H. Doc. 108-97, 2003 — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-108hdoc97/pdf/CDOC-108hdoc97.pdf → that the resolution gave no instruction on the stars' points or arrangement; "there is no proof that she made the first Stars and Stripes"; the circle-of-stars flag dating to the 1790s; William J. Canby's 1870 paper and his June 1776 dating; Francis Hopkinson and his refused request for payment; the Hartford celebration of 1861; the first national observance on June 14, 1877.
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Star-Spangled Banner exhibition — https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/ and https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/making-the-flag.aspx → the flag on display; the thirty-by-forty-two-foot garrison flag sewn in 1813 by Mary Pickersgill with her daughter, two nieces and the indentured servant Grace Wisher.
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Symbols of a New Nation — https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/symbols-of-a-new-nation.aspx → that the new flag attracted little public attention and that its primary function was identifying ships and forts.
- U.S. House of Representatives, H. Res. 662, 108th Congress, agreed to June 14, 2004 — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-108hres662eh/html/BILLS-108hres662eh.htm → Bernard John Cigrand, 1885, Stony Hill School, Waubeka and Fredonia, Wisconsin; the House's recognition that Flag Day originated in Ozaukee County.
- U.S. House of Representatives, H. Res. 1429, 111th Congress, agreed to June 17, 2010 — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-111hres1429eh/html/BILLS-111hres1429eh.htm → the later, hedged wording that the first celebration "is believed to have been introduced by" Cigrand.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Celebrating America's Freedoms — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-VA-PURL-LPS49099/pdf/GOVPUB-VA-PURL-LPS49099.pdf → William T. Kerr credited with founding the American Flag Day Association in 1888 in Pittsburgh; the New York kindergarten ceremonies of June 14, 1889; the Philadelphia Colonial Dames resolution of 1893; the Hartford claim of 1861.
- Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, historical marker dataset (marker for William T. Kerr, Allegheny County) — https://data.pa.gov/api/views/xt8f-pzzz/rows.csv?accessType=DOWNLOAD → the marker text calling Kerr "The Father of Flag Day."
- Congressional Record, House, June 3, 1916, 64th Congress — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1916-pt9-v53/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1916-pt9-v53-14-2.pdf → the full text of Woodrow Wilson's Proclamation 1335 of May 30, 1916 and its "suggest and request" wording; Representative Hulbert's correspondence showing the Elks' compulsory observance of June 14 since 1912 and his lobbying for the proclamation.
- U.S. Statutes at Large, Joint Resolution of August 3, 1949, Public Law 81-203, 63 Stat. 492 — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-63/pdf/STATUTE-63-Pg492.pdf → the designation of June 14 as Flag Day and the request for an annual presidential proclamation. Note the act says "Flag Day", not "National Flag Day."
- 36 U.S.C. 110, Flag Day — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title36/pdf/USCODE-2024-title36-subtitleI-partA-chap1-sec110.pdf → the current codification and its 1949 lineage.
- 5 U.S.C. 6103, Holidays — https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/5/6103?link-type=pdf → the eleven legal public holidays, and Flag Day's absence from the list.
- 4 U.S.C. ch. 1, the Flag Code — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title4/pdf/USCODE-2024-title4-chap1.pdf → section 6(d) listing Flag Day among the days for display, with a half-staff instruction attached only to Memorial Day; section 8(k) on destroying a worn flag "in a dignified way, preferably by burning."
- Pennsylvania Legal Holiday Law, Act of May 31, 1893, P.L. 188, No. 138, as amended — https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/PDF/1893/0/0138..PDF → June 14 listed as a Pennsylvania legal holiday, the act's confinement of that effect to bills, checks, drafts and promissory notes, and its declaration that such days are otherwise "secular or business days."
- National Park Service, Celebrate Flag Day at the Home of the Star-Spangled Banner, Fort McHenry — https://www.nps.gov/fomc/learn/news/celebrate-flag-day-at-the-home-of-the-star-spangled-banner.htm → Flag Day programs built around the morning and evening flag changes.
- U.S. Department of Defense, How to Properly Dispose of Worn-Out U.S. Flags — https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/Story/Article/2206946/how-to-properly-dispose-of-worn-out-us-flags/ → collection by American Legion and VFW posts, scout troops and government offices; the caution on local fire codes; synthetic flags as hazardous to burn.
Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate and any content-farm or AI-generated listicle. A Chicago or Illinois 1894 founding claim circulates widely but was found in no acceptable source, so it is not published here. The 1937 date often given for Pennsylvania's adoption, and the claim that Pennsylvania remains the only such state, rest on the VA pamphlet alone and are not asserted on this page.
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