LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 and commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.
The 106th Army Band, a five star brass band, stopped by the THV Weather Garden to celebrate Flag Day with a live performance on 'Today's THV This Morning.' Click on the video!
Some facts about Flag Day and the U.S. flag:
-While Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday.
-President William Taft issued an executive order in 1912 dictating the proportions for the flag and placement of the stars. Before then, these features were left up to the flagmaker, resulting in unusual star arrangements and odd proportions.
-Betsy Ross, often credited with sewing the nation's first flag, apprenticed not as a seamstress but as an upholsterer, learning to make and repair curtains, bedcovers, tablecloths, rugs, umbrellas and Venetian blinds.
-Congress officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as the nation's flag on June 14, 1777. The next day, Ross married her second husband, Joseph Ashburn. Her first husband, John Ross, had died during the Revolutionary War, as did Ashburn a few years later. Her third marriage, to John Claypoole, lasted 34 years.
-The national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," is based on a 15-star, 15-stripe flag sewn by Mary Pickersgill for Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Vermont and Kentucky had recently been added to the original 13 states.
-The U.S. flag has been modified 26 times since its adoption in 1777. Today's 50-star flag, created in 1960, has been in use the longest.
(Sources: Historic Philadelphia and the Smithsonian Institution)