80 Fun Facts About Patriotic

How many stripes are on the flag of the United States?

They stand for the thirteen British colonies that won independence; the stars stand for the states.

The 50-star US flag was adopted in 1960 after which state joined the Union?

It became the 27th official design in July 1960 and has been in use longer than any other version.

Which president ordered the 50-star flag on August 21, 1959?

The design became official the following July.

In 1795 the flag briefly grew to 15 stars and stripes for Kentucky and which other new state?

That 15-stripe version is the one that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired the national anthem.

Which 19th-century sea captain coined the nickname 'Old Glory' for a flag his mother gave him in 1824?

He hid it from Confederates during the Civil War and later flew it over the Tennessee capitol in Nashville.

Who spread the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first Stars and Stripes from George Washington's sketch?

Historians call the tale apocryphal; another seamstress, Rebecca Young, was also claimed to have made the first flag.

Under the Flag Code, must a flag that touches the ground be destroyed?

The American Legion and state governments have confirmed the rule requires no such thing.

The US Flag Code became public law in which year?

It bans using the flag for advertising or printing it on cushions and handkerchiefs.

Which president designated June 14 as Flag Day by proclamation in 1916?

Congress made it official in 1949; June 14 is also the US Army's birthday.

Which state was the first to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?

The celebration began in the small town of Rennerdale.

The words of the national anthem were originally a poem with what title?

The name we know came from a Baltimore music-store owner who published words and tune together.

Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry during which war?

The British attack force fired on the fort for 25 hours.

The tune of the national anthem was borrowed from a song written for a gentlemen's club in which city?

John Stafford Smith wrote 'The Anacreontic Song' for the Anacreontic Society of amateur musicians.

How many stanzas does the full poem behind the US national anthem have?

Almost nobody sings past the first, but all four officially make up the anthem.

Which president signed the 1931 law making 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the official national anthem?

Before then, songs like 'Hail, Columbia' and 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' served unofficially.

In which year's World Series was the anthem first played at a baseball game, during Game One's seventh-inning stretch?

Playing it before every game only became routine during World War II.

Which singer performed the wrong lyrics to the anthem before Super Bowl XLV in 2011?

She replaced the 'ramparts' line with a mangled version of the second line.

Which museum has housed the huge Fort McHenry flag that inspired the anthem since 1964?

It was the largest battle flag ever flown at the time, sewn by Mary Pickersgill and her nieces.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of what?

On October 21, 1892, more than 10,000 schoolchildren recited it together for the first time.

The words 'under God' were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in which year?

President Eisenhower signed the change into law on Flag Day.

The straight-arm 'Bellamy' gesture for the Pledge was dropped in World War II because it resembled what?

Americans now place a hand over the heart instead.

What was Francis Bellamy's day job when he wrote the Pledge?

He was a Baptist minister and Christian socialist working for The Youth's Companion.

What does the Latin motto 'E pluribus unum' on the Great Seal mean?

The phrase has exactly 13 letters, and the seal is packed with other thirteens too.

On the Great Seal, the bird holds an olive branch and a bundle of how many arrows?

Together they mean the country wants peace but is always ready for war.

Which secretary of the Continental Congress largely designed the Great Seal, first used in 1782?

William Barton helped; the seal still authenticates certain federal documents.

'In God We Trust' became the official national motto in which year?

It replaced 'E pluribus unum', which had served as the de facto motto since the Great Seal was designed.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on US money in 1864 on which coin?

The motto grew out of the Civil War, when Union supporters wanted to show their faith and boost morale.

Which animal officially became the national bird of the United States by an act of Congress in 2024?

It had been on the Great Seal since 1782 but was only 'unofficially' the national bird until then.

What is the truth about the legend that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey as the national symbol?

He did privately grumble about the eagle in a letter to his daughter, which is where the story comes from.

Which animal became the national mammal of the United States in 2016?

Both 'buffalo' and 'bison' are considered correct names for it in American English.

What is the national floral emblem of the United States?

The oak, meanwhile, is the national tree.

Who drew the 1917 'I Want You' Uncle Sam poster, using his own face as the model?

It was based on a British poster of Lord Kitchener from three years earlier.

September 13 is 'Uncle Sam Day' because it is the birthday of which man said to have inspired the character?

He was a meat packer from Troy during a war of the early 19th century, though the true origin of the character is murky.

The Liberty Bell was cast with an inscription taken from which book of the Bible?

'Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof' comes from Leviticus 25:10.

Which movement first gave the Liberty Bell its name in the 1830s?

Its link to the Revolution was only made in 1847, a decade later.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?

Its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, and it was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

What is written on the tablet the Statue of Liberty holds in her left hand?

It is July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals; her torch is in the right hand.

Which newspaper publisher ran a fundraising drive that paid for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal?

He promised to print the name of every donor no matter how small the gift, and New Yorkers responded.

Public access to the Statue of Liberty's torch has been barred since what year?

Visitors can still climb to the crown, but the torch balcony closed after the Black Tom explosion damaged the arm.

Which four presidents are carved into Mount Rushmore?

They were chosen to represent the nation's foundation, expansion, development and preservation.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum gave Mount Rushmore what nickname?

He died in March 1941 and his son Lincoln finished the job.

The Washington Monument was the world's tallest structure from 1884 until 1889, when it was overtaken by what?

Its bottom third is a slightly different shade because construction stopped for over 20 years and the marble came from another quarry.

Which two Lincoln speeches are inscribed inside the Lincoln Memorial?

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech on its steps in 1963.

Roughly how many words long is the Gettysburg Address?

Lincoln spoke for under two minutes; the day's main speaker, Edward Everett, went on for two hours.

Which building was set ablaze by British forces in 1814, charring much of its exterior?

Every president since John Adams in 1800 has lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Katharine Lee Bates wrote 'America the Beautiful' after a trip up which mountain?

Her poem was originally titled after the peak and first ran in a church magazine on the Fourth of July, 1895.

Which songwriter revived a shelved 1918 song as a 'peace song' for Kate Smith's 1938 Armistice Day broadcast?

The song was 'God Bless America'; he gave its royalties to a fund for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of New York City.

Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' in 1940 as a sarcastic response to which Kate Smith radio staple?

He was fed up hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio and first titled his song 'God Blessed America for Me'.

Which John Philip Sousa march became the official National March of the United States in 1987?

Sousa said he composed it in his head on Christmas Day 1896 aboard a ship home from Europe.

'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' borrows its melody from which other country's anthem?

It was first sung in public by children at a Boston Independence Day celebration in 1831.

Julia Ward Howe sold the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' to The Atlantic Monthly in 1862 for how much?

She set her words to the tune of the soldiers' song 'John Brown's Body'.

'Yankee Doodle' is the official state song of which state?

British officers originally sang it to mock the scruffy colonial troops; the colonists took it up as their own.

In 'Yankee Doodle', the feather called 'macaroni' refers to what?

A 'macaroni' was 1770s slang for a fop who dressed in an outlandishly affected way.

Memorial Day was originally known by what name?

General John A. Logan proclaimed it in 1868 so graves could be decorated when flowers were in bloom.

Veterans Day falls on November 11 because that date in 1918 marked what?

It was called Armistice Day until 1954, when it was renamed to honour all veterans.

Presidents' Day is officially still called what at the federal level?

It moved to the third Monday in February in 1971 to give federal workers a long weekend.

In what year did Congress first make Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees?

It did not become a paid federal holiday until 1938.

The photograph 'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima' shows how many Marines?

Three of them were killed later in the same battle; the image became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Who took the Pulitzer-winning photograph of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima in February 1945?

It ran in Sunday newspapers two days after he took it and was reprinted in thousands of publications.

The Purple Heart descends from the Badge of Military Merit, created in 1782 by whom?

The original was a heart of purple cloth, and Washington personally awarded only three of them.

Over 40 per cent of all Medals of Honor have been awarded for actions in which war?

The Navy version was introduced in 1861 and the Army's in 1862.

The US Constitution was signed at Independence Hall on September 17 of which year?

That date is now Constitution Day; the document is the world's oldest written national constitution still in force.

What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution collectively called?

North Carolina refused to ratify the Constitution until they had been passed.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia was added to which international list in 1979?

Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and adopted inside it.

Flag Day marks the day the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes. In which year was that?

There were no starred flags at all when independence was declared in July 1776; the resolution came almost a year later.

June 14 is also the official birthday of which branch of the US armed forces?

The Continental Army was created on June 14, 1775, exactly two years before the flag was adopted.

In which state did 'Father of Flag Day' Bernard J. Cigrand hold the first formal observance in Waubeka in 1885?

He later claimed to have given 2,188 speeches on patriotism and the flag over 30 years of campaigning.

Cigrand moved to Chicago to train for which profession while campaigning for the holiday?

He first proposed an annual observance in an 1886 Chicago Argus article titled "The Fourteenth of June".

Which president signed the 1949 Act of Congress that officially established National Flag Day?

William T. Kerr, who had chaired the American Flag Day Association for fifty years, was there for the signing.

What is Flag Day's legal status in Washington?

Federal law leaves it to the president to proclaim the observance each year; the statute is Title 36, Section 110 of the US Code.

The 1777 Flag Resolution said the thirteen white stars in a blue field represented "a new ___".

It said nothing about how the stars should be arranged, so early flag makers used circles, rows and even one big star.

The white stripes of the improvised flag flown at Fort Schuyler in August 1777 came from what?

The red came from officers' wives' flannel petticoats and the blue from Captain Abraham Swartwout's coat; Congress later paid him for it.

Which Declaration signer claimed in his lifetime to have designed the Stars and Stripes, even billing Congress?

Congress never paid, partly on the grounds that he already drew a salary as a member.

Under the 1818 Flag Act, a new star becomes official on which date after a state is admitted?

The same act fixed the stripes at thirteen for good after the brief 15-stripe experiment.

How were the stars arranged on the 48-star flag of 1912, the first officially specified pattern?

Before that, civilian flags used all sorts of rectangular and circular patterns; only the Army and Navy had standard designs.

When the Empress of China reached Canton in 1784, the Chinese gave the American ensign what nickname?

The ship's cargo was ginseng, and the name stuck in Cantonese for the United States itself.

The 50-star flag adopted in 1960 is which official design of the US flag?

It has been in use since July 1960, making it by far the longest-serving version.

Which state's laws designate the second Sunday in June, rather than June 14, as its Flag Day holiday?

Buffalo schoolteacher Sarah Hinson had been running Flag Day exercises with her pupils there since 1891.

Which Rhode Island town has held the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration, since 1785?

Seward, Nebraska, designated 'America's Official Fourth of July City-Small Town USA' by Congress, has marked the day on its square since 1868.

Which country's Rebild National Park is said to host the largest July 4 celebrations outside the US?

The Rebild Society, a Danish-American friendship group, has held the homecoming festival there since 1912.