40 Fun Facts About Flag Day

Which US president, born in the 1940s, celebrates his birthday every year on Flag Day?

Donald Trump was born in Queens, New York, in 1946, the same year as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He turned 31 on the day the Stars and Stripes turned 200.

Which US military branch celebrates its birthday every year on Flag Day?

The Army traces its birth to the Continental force that Congress created in 1775, exactly two years before it adopted the Stars and Stripes. That makes the service more than a year older than the nation it defends.

Which two words did President Eisenhower sign into the Pledge of Allegiance on Flag Day in 1954?

Under God was the last of several rewrites of the Pledge. The first 1892 wording did not even name the United States, speaking only of 'my Flag'.

On which date is Flag Day celebrated, marking the 1777 adoption of the Stars and Stripes?

June 14 has been proclaimed by presidents for more than a century, yet Flag Day has never been made a federal holiday. Federal law only asks the president to proclaim it each year.

Which Philadelphia upholsterer does family legend credit with sewing the first Stars and Stripes?

Betsy Ross was first credited by her relatives in 1870, almost a century after the event. No record from her own lifetime has been found to back the story.

Under the US Flag Code, flying the Stars and Stripes upside down is reserved as a signal of what?

Dire distress is the only reason the code accepts, and only where life or property is in extreme danger. Mourning is shown a different way, by lowering the flag to half-staff.

What does the US Flag Code call the preferred way to dispose of a flag too worn to display?

Burning it in a dignified way is what the code prefers. The code is guidance only, though, and sets no penalty for anyone who retires a flag some other way.

Which 1969 mission planted the first US flag on the Moon, only for engine exhaust to topple it?

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin looked up in time to see the flag fall as the lunar module lifted off. Later crews planted their flags farther from the lander.

Which nickname for the US flag began as sea captain William Driver's name for his own ship's banner?

Old Glory spent part of the Civil War sewn inside a coverlet in Nashville. Driver ripped the seams open to reveal it when the city fell in 1862.

Which president issued the 1916 proclamation that first set a nationwide Flag Day?

Woodrow Wilson acted after three decades of lobbying by flag-day campaigners. His proclamation was only a request, and Congress did not write the observance into law for another 33 years.

The flag that inspired the US national anthem flew over which Baltimore harbor stronghold in 1814?

Fort McHenry's commander had asked for a flag so large that the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance. It measured 30 by 42 feet.

Which Maryland lawyer wrote the 1814 poem that was later set to music as 'The Star-Spangled Banner'?

Francis Scott Key's verses were sung to a popular British tune for more than a century before the song became the official national anthem in 1931.

Which state's admission in 1959 added the 50th star to the US flag, a design used since 1960?

Hawaii followed Alaska into statehood within months, so the 49-star flag was short-lived. The 50-star design has since flown longer than any earlier version.

What do the thirteen red and white stripes on the United States flag stand for?

The original colonies briefly had company: the flag grew to fifteen stripes when two more states joined. Congress went back to thirteen in 1818 and let only the stars keep growing.

By military custom, a US flag is folded into which shape, with only the blue field of stars showing?

A triangle is the finished shape, usually reached after thirteen folds. The fold is custom only: the Flag Code itself says nothing about how to put a flag away.

The US Flag Code says a flag may fly outdoors around the clock only on which condition?

Lighting at night is the one exception to the code's custom of flying the flag only from sunrise to sunset. Its own phrase is 'properly illuminated during the hours of darkness'.

On which Pacific island did six Marines plant the US flag atop Mount Suribachi in February 1945?

Iwo Jima's famous photograph actually shows the second flag raised that day, a larger replacement for the first. It won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

The Pledge of Allegiance debuted in 1892 at school events marking 400 years since whose voyage?

Christopher Columbus's anniversary gave a children's magazine its moment: it printed the Pledge while also selling flags to schools, and tens of thousands of schools bought one.

On which US holiday does the Flag Code call for flags at half-staff until noon, then full staff?

Memorial Day was first observed nationally in 1868 under the name Decoration Day. After noon the flag goes back to full height for the rest of the day.

Honor America Days, set by Congress, run for 21 days from Flag Day through which holiday?

Independence Day closes the period, and it is also the date on which a new star is officially added to the flag after a state is admitted.

Which president signed the 1949 Act of Congress that made National Flag Day an official observance?

Harry S. Truman signed with William T. Kerr looking on, a campaigner who had chaired the American Flag Day Association for half a century.

In the 1782 explanation of the Great Seal, whose colors match the US flag, what does red signify?

Valor, paired with hardiness, was the meaning given to red, with white for purity and blue for justice. Back in 1777 the flag's own colors had been given no official meaning at all.

Which state, where Congress adopted the flag in 1777, first made Flag Day a legal holiday in 1937?

Pennsylvania acted 44 years after Elizabeth Duane Gillespie, a descendant of Benjamin Franklin, campaigned for the flag to fly on Philadelphia's public buildings. Nationally, Flag Day has never been a federal day off.

Which teacher, later a dentist, is called the Father of Flag Day for an 1885 classroom observance?

Bernard J. Cigrand once reckoned he had given 2,188 speeches on patriotism and the flag. He campaigned for three decades before a president finally proclaimed the day.

Stony Hill School in Waubeka, where Flag Day was first formally observed in 1885, is in which state?

Wisconsin's one-room schoolhouse has been restored, and Waubeka is now home to the National Flag Day Americanism Center, where a bust honors the teacher who led that first observance.

In the Flag Resolution of 1777, the thirteen white stars on blue were said to represent what?

A new constellation was all the resolution said. It gave no layout for the stars, so early flag makers set them in rows, circles and other patterns of their own.

Which 1861 battle, whose rescued flag rallied the North, prompted the first call for a Flag Day?

Fort Sumter's flag was carried north by the fort's commander and drew a huge rally in New York. That summer Hartford, Connecticut, held the earliest claimed Flag Day celebration.

Which state's Bear Flag Revolt against Mexican rule began in 1846 on the date now kept as Flag Day?

California's rebels were 33 American settlers who seized the town of Sonoma and declared a republic. It lasted just 25 days.

Which word for the study of flags was coined by American scholar Whitney Smith in the late 1950s?

Vexillology joins the Latin vexillum, a square flag carried by Roman cavalry, to the Greek ending for 'study'. Until then, flags had been treated as a corner of heraldry.

Which composer wrote 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', the official national march of the US?

John Philip Sousa composed it on Christmas Day 1896, aboard a ship bringing him home from a vacation in Europe. Congress gave the march its official title in 1987.

Which Broadway showman, also the writer of 'Over There', composed 'You're a Grand Old Flag' in 1906?

George M. Cohan's first title said 'Rag' instead of 'Flag', and he changed the word after objections. It became the first song from a musical to sell a million copies of sheet music.

Which of these common uses of the Stars and Stripes does the US Flag Code actually advise against?

As clothing, bedding or drapery, the flag is off limits under the code, which also objects to printing it on paper napkins and boxes. None of this is enforced.

Which fraternal order has required every one of its lodges to observe Flag Day since 1911?

The Elks adopted Flag Day by resolution in 1907, nine years before any president proclaimed it. Allegiance to the flag is a requirement for every member.

Which New Jersey signer of the 1776 Declaration asked Congress to pay him for designing the US flag?

Francis Hopkinson asked for a quarter cask of public wine as his reward, but the Treasury Board turned the request down in 1780. He had also designed Continental paper money.

Which Baltimore seamstress, whose home is now the Flag House museum, sewed the Star-Spangled Banner?

Mary Pickersgill was paid $405.90, and the flag was so large that she had to spread it across the floor of a nearby brewery's malt house to finish it.

Under which name did Franklin D. Roosevelt recast Flag Day 1942 as a salute to the wartime Allies?

United Nations Day came six months after the Allies' joint declaration, and New York marked it with a giant 'New York at War' parade. The wartime version was kept up until 1944.

Which veterans' group convened the 1923 Flag Day conference in Washington that wrote the Flag Code?

The American Legion brought together delegates from dozens of organizations, then printed the code and sent it around the country. Congress did not make it law until 1942.

Under the US Flag Code, what should be done with a flag just before it is set at half-staff?

Raise it to the peak for an instant, then bring it down to the middle of the pole. The code asks for the same trip to the top again before the flag is taken in for the day.

Which city, home to Lincoln and Humboldt parks, drew over 300,000 children to an 1894 Flag Day celebration?

Chicago was where the holiday's chief campaigner had first proposed it in a newspaper article eight years earlier. The children's celebration was repeated the following year.

Which New Jersey city held its own Flag Day in 1913 to cast striking silk workers as un-American?

Paterson's plan backfired when the strikers marched through the streets carrying American flags of their own. City leaders had seen to it that every textile mill flew one.