The history of Flag Day is a matter of debate. There are many claims of local citizens organizing city and state wide observations of Flag Day. In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. But it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.
On June 14,1777 the Continental Congress resolved: “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 Flag of the United States was born. Observance of the adoption of the flag was not soon in coming. The exact arraignment of the stars was not standardized until 1912 when the flag gained a 48th star, and the exact colors of the flag were not standardized until even later.
Although there are many claims to the first official observance of Flag Day, all happened at least a hundred years after the adoption of the flag in 1777. The most recognized claim comes from New York. On June 14, 1889, Professor George Bolch, principal of a free kindergarten for the poor of New York City. He had his school hold ceremonies to commemorate the resolution creating our nations flag. This initiative attracted attention from the State Department of Education, which arranged to have the day observed in all public schools. Soon the state legislature passed a law making it the responsibility of the state superintendent of public schools to ensure that schools held observances for Flag Day.
Another claim comes from Philadelphia. In 1893, the Society of Colonial Dames succeeded in getting a resolution passed to have the flag displayed on all of the city’s public buildings. Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin and the president of the Colonial Dames of Pennsylvania, that same year tried to get the city to call June 14 Flag Day. Resolutions by women were not granted much notice. On May 7, 1937, that Pennsylvania became the first state to establish the June 14 Flag Day as a legal holiday.
Regardless of these claims and others Flag Day did not reach National proportions until 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson requested national observance of the date. In 1927 President President Coolidge followed suite and issued a proclamation.asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. Finally on August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed Title 36 Sec. 110 of the US Code.
- Designation.— June 14 is Flag Day.
- Proclamation.— The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—
- calling on United States Government officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Flag Day; and
- urging the people of the United States to observe Flag Day as the anniversary of the adoption on June 14, 1777, by the Continental Congress of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States.
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