Today is "Flag Day"

Today,  Monday, June 14, the United States recognizes 233rd anniversary of the first Flag Act, passed by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.

The Act created the first flag for the original 13 colonies as they broke away from England. It stated that “the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation”.

Today Flag Day is celebrated as a birthday of sorts for the flag. The day was first recognized around 1885, when a Wisconsin teacher, BJ Cigrand, encouraged his students to observe the day as such. It became a tradition in the school, known first as “Flag Birthday” and then as “Flag Day”, and remained a more local observance until 1889, when New York City teacher George Balch did the same. The practice was adopted by the State Board of Education of New York soon after.

Such scholastic celebrations persisted for three decades after Cigrand’s first ceremony, spreading from New York to Philadelphia and then Chicago. Adults participated in the activities as well, and in 1894 New York Governor Roswell P. Flower mandated that every public building display a flag on June 14.

Flag Day was kept as a local tradition across the country until it was established on May 30, 1916, under a proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson. President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress on Aug. 3, 1949, placing National Flag Day on the 14th day of June every year.

For the West 12th Road Block Asociation,

Peter J. Mahon