Flag Day is a holiday celebrated on June 14 in the United States. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. The Flag Resolution stated, "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.”

Flag Day was first proposed in 1861 to rally support for the Union side of the American Civil War. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation that designated June 14 as Flag Day. On August 3, 1949, National Flag Day was officially established by an Act of Congress. On June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday, beginning in the town of Rennerdale. New York Consolidated Laws designate the second Sunday in June as Flag Day, a state holiday.

Flag Day is not an official federal holiday. Federal law leaves it to the discretion of the president to officially proclaim the observance. Title 36 of the United States Code, Subtitle I, Part A, Chapter 1, Section 110 is the official statute on Flag Day. The United States Army -- founded June 14, 1775 in the immediate lead-up to the Battle of Bunker Hill as the Continental Army a year-plus before U.S. independence was declared and two years exactly before the flag's adoption by Congress -- also celebrates its birthday as June 14, 1775.

History

Flag of the United States

Several people and organizations played instrumental roles in the establishment of a national Flag Day celebration. They are identified here in chronological order.

1861, Civil War

The holiday was first proposed shortly after the 1861 attack on Fort Sumter that started the Civil War. The flag flying over the fort was saved by Union soldiers during the Confederate takeover. The Fort Sumter Flag became a symbol of opposition to the Confederate rebellion. Fame transformed the flag from a fairly obscure military symbol used to identify American ships and forts into a popular symbol used by ordinary Americans to support the Union cause.

Fort Sumter Flag

A day to celebrate the newly popular flag was proposed by Charles Dudley Warner in Hartford, Connecticut. This embrace of the flag coincided with new technology that allowed flags to be printed on a single piece of cloth, rather than stitched together by hand from multiple colors of cloth. This allowed flags to be mass produced for the public for the first time.^]