200 Years of the Star-Spangled Banner
To explain the story how Flag Day came to be and to appreciate the significance and history of the American Flag there are some excerpts from primary and secondary sources for basic information and online resources for further reading:The “Stars and Stripes”, the official National symbol of the United States of America was authorized by congress on that Saturday of June 14, 1777 in the fifth item of the days agenda. The entry in the journal of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 Vol. Vlll 1777 reads “Resolved 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.”
American Memory: Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc00822))
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc00822))
Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on that day in 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.
"...Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave..."
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave..."
-Francis Scott Key, 1814
On September 14, 1814, U.S. soldiers at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry raised a huge American flag to celebrate a crucial victory over British forces during the War of 1812. The sight of those “broad stripes and bright stars” inspired Francis Scott Key to write a song that eventually became the United States national anthem. Key’s words gave new significance to a national symbol and started a tradition through which generations of Americans have invested the flag with their own meanings and memories.
Smithsonian: The Star-Spangled Banner
http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/
http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html
History of the Flag
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html
Presidential Proclamation – Flag Day and National Flag Week, 2014
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/06/presidential-proclamation-flag-day-and-national-flag-week-2014
Anthem for America: Raise It Up!
http://anthemforamerica.smithsonian.com/
The Star-Spangled Banner – Project at the Smitsonian Institution's National Museum of American History
http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/
The Star-Spangeled Banner: Lyrics
http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-lyrics.aspx
National Park Service's Ft. McHenry: National Monument and Historic Shrine, Maryland
http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm
Observance of Flag Day
http://www.nationalflagday.com/default.asp
The History of the Pledge of Allegiance
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/pledgeofallegiancehistory.htm
The Man Who Wrote the Pledge of Allegiance
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/
