The American Flag's History
The American Flag
THE AMERICAN FLAG;
Old Glory
Our Banner of Liberty
or Star Spangled Banner
Continental Congress Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
When the flag was first designed there were no specific explanations for the meaning.
Later, when looking to set a seal, Charles Thompson - Secretary for the Continental Congress said the following:
"White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue... signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.
The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."
THE AMERICAN FLAG IN THE COURTS AND IN LEGISLATURE:
1897 - Adoption of State Flag Desecration Statutes — By the late 1800's an organized flag protection movement was born in reaction to perceived commercial and political misuse of the flag. After supporters failed to obtain federal legislation, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota became the first States to adopt flag desecration statutes. By 1932, all of the States had adopted flag desecration laws.
In general, these State laws outlawed: (i) placing any kind of marking on the flag, whether for commercial, political, or other purposes; (ii) using the flag in any form of advertising; and (iii) publicly mutilating, trampling, defacing, defiling, defying or casting contempt, either by words or by act, upon the flag. Under the model flag desecration law, the term "flag" was defined to include any flag, standard, ensign, or color, or any representation of such made of any substance whatsoever and of any size that evidently purported to be said flag or a picture or representation thereof, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and stripes in any number, or by which the person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag of the U.S.
1907 - Halter v. Nebraska (205 U.S. 34) — The Supreme Court holds that although the flag was a federal creation, the States' had the authority to promulgate flag desecration laws under their general police power to safeguard public safety and welfare.
1931 - Stromberg v. California (283 U.S. 359) — The Supreme Court finds that a State statute prohibiting the display of a "red flag" as a sign of opposition to organized government unconstitutionally infringed on the defendant's First Amendment rights. Stromberg represents the Court's first declaration that "symbolic speech" is protected by the First Amendment.
1942 - Federal Flag Code (36 U.S.C. 171 et seq.) — On June 22, 1942, President Roosevelt approves the Federal Flag Code, providing for uniform guidelines for the display and respect shown to the flag. The Flag Code does not prescribe any penalties for non-compliance nor does it include any enforcement provisions, rather it functions simply as a guide for voluntary civilian compliance.
1943 - West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (319 U.S. 624) — The Supreme Court holds that public school children could not be compelled to salute the U.S. flag. In a now famous passage, Justice Jackson highlighted the importance of freedom of expression under the First Amendment:
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.
1949 - August 3 — Truman signs bill requesting the President call for Flag Day (June 14) observance each year by proclamation.
1969 - Adoption of Federal Flag Desecration Law (18 U.S.C. 700 et seq.) — Congress approves the first federal flag desecration law in the wake of a highly publicized Central Park flag burning incident in protest of the Vietnam War. The federal law made it illegal to "knowingly" cast "contempt" upon "any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon it." The law defined flag in an expansive manner similar to most States.
1969 - Street v. New York (394 U.S. 576) — The Supreme Court holds that New York could not convict a person based on his verbal remarks disparaging the flag. Street was arrested after he learned of the shooting of civil rights leader James Meredith and reacted by burning his own flag and exclaiming to a small crowd that if the government could allow Meredith to be killed, "we don't need no damn flag." The Court avoided deciding whether flag burning was protected by the First Amendment, and instead overturned the conviction based on Street's oral remarks. In Street, the Court found there was not a sufficient governmental interest to warrant regulating verbal criticism of the flag.
1972 - Smith v. Goguen (415 U.S. 94) — The Supreme Court holds that Massachusetts could not prosecute a person for wearing a small cloth replica of the flag on the seat of his pants based on a State law making it a crime to publicly treat the flag of the United States with "contempt." The Massachusetts statute was held to be unconstitutionally "void for vagueness."
1974 - Spence v. Washington (418 U.S. 405) — The Supreme Court holds that the State of Washington could not convict a person for attaching removable tape in the form of a peace sign to a flag. The defendant had attached the tape to his flag and draped it outside of his window in protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings. The Court again found under the First Amendment there was not a sufficient governmental interest to justify regulating this form of symbolic speech. Although not a flag burning case, this represented the first time the Court had clearly stated that protest involving the physical use of the flag should be seen as a form of protected expression under the First Amendment.
1970-1980 - Revision of State Flag Desecration Statutes — During this period legislatures in some 20 States narrow the scope of their flag desecration laws in an effort to conform to perceived Constitutional restrictions under the Street, Smith, and Spence cases and to more generally parallel the federal law (i.e., focusing more specifically on mutilation and other forms of physical desecration, rather than verbal abuse or commercial or political misuse).
1989 - Texas v. Johnson (491 U.S. 397) — The Supreme Court upholds the Texas Court of Criminal appeals finding that Texas law — making it a crime to "desecrate" or otherwise "mistreat" the flag in a way the "actor knows will seriously offend one or more persons" — was unconstitutional as applied. This was the first time the Supreme Court had directly considered the applicability of the First Amendment to flag burning.
Gregory Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, was arrested during a demonstration outside of the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas after he set fire to a flag while protesters chanted "America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you." In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Brennan, the Court first found that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech subject to protection under the First Amendment. The Court also determined that under United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), since the State law was related to the suppression of freedom of expression, the conviction could only be upheld if Texas could demonstrate a "compelling" interest in its law. The Court next found that Texas' asserted interest in "protecting the peace" was not implicated under the facts of the case. Finally, while the Court acknowledged that Texas had a legitimate interest in preserving the flag as a "symbol of national unity," this interest was not sufficiently compelling to justify a "content based" legal restriction (i.e., the law was not based on protecting the physical integrity of the flag in all circumstances, but was designed to protect it from symbolic protest likely to cause offense to others).
1989 - Revision of Federal Flag Desecration Statute — Pursuant to the Flag Protection Act of 1989, Congress amends the 1968 federal flag desecration statute in an effort to make it "content neutral" and conform to the Constitutional requirements of Johnson. As a result, the 1989 Act sought to prohibit flag desecration under all circumstances by deleting the statutory requirement that the conduct cast contempt upon the flag and narrowing the definition of the term "flag" so that its meaning was not based on the observation of third parties.
1990 - United States v. Eichman (496 U.S. 310) — Passage of the Flag Protection Act results in a number of flag burning incidents protesting the new law. The Supreme Court overturned several flag burning convictions brought under the Flag Protection Act of 1989. The Court holds that notwithstanding Congress' effort to adopt a more content neutral law, the federal law continued to be principally aimed at limiting symbolic speech.
1990 - Rejection of Constitutional Amendment — Following the Eichman decision, Congress considers and rejects a Constitutional Amendment specifying that "the Congress and the States have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The amendment failed to muster the necessary two-thirds Congressional majorities, as it was supported by only a 254 — 177 margin in the House (290 votes were necessary) and a 58 — 42 margin in the Senate (67 votes were necessary).
1995 - December 12 — The Flag Desecration Constitutional Amendment is narrowly defeated in the Senate. The Amendment to the Constitution would make burning the flag a punishable crime.
2005 - January 25 — Constitutional amendment, sponsored by Rep. Duke Cunningham, introduced. It reads simply, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
2005 - June 22 — The Constitutional amendment (see above) is approved by the House (vote of 286-130). It requires Senate approval. Then it must receive approval from 38 states within seven years.
2006 - June 28 — The Senate is one vote short of passing the Constitutional amendment (see above).
June 2007 — proposed: To amend title 4, United States Code, to authorize the Governor of a State, territory, or possession of the United States to order that the National flag be flown at half-staff in that State, territory, or possession in the event of the death of a member of the Armed Forces from that State, territory, or possession who dies while serving on active duty
OTHER NOTES:
Prior to the Betsy Ross Flag, some chose flags with Rattlesnake designs and symbols.
Even after the South seceded from the Union, President Lincoln would not allow any stars to be removed from the flag.
1945 - The flag that flew over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was flown over the White House on August 14, when the Japanese accepted surrender terms.
July 20, 1969 — The American flag was placed on the moon by Neil Armstrong.
September 11, 2001 — The Flag from the World Trade towers survived and became a symbol of sacrifice in service, loss, and determination.
Changes to the Flag are not official without Executive Order.
When a new Flag is designed to add a star(s), the new flag cannot take National position or be official until the following Fourth of July.
1776 JAN. 1 - "GRAND UNION FLAG"
13 red and white alternating stripes and British Union Jack
13 STARS/13 STRIPES
1777 BETSY ROSS FLAG - Adopted
DELAWARE, PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, GEORGIA, CONNECTICUT, MASSACHUSETTS, MARYLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, RHODE ISLAND
15 STARS/15 STRIPES
1795 KENTUCKY, VERMONT
20 STARS/13 STRIPES
1818 TENNESSEE, OHIO, LOUISIANA, INDIANA, MISSISSIPPI
21 STARS
1819 ILLINOIS
23 STARS
1820 ALABAMA, MAINE
24 STARS
1822 MISSOURI
25 STARS
1836 ARKANSAS
26 STARS
1837 MICHIGAN
27 STARS
1845 FLORIDA
28 STARS
1846 TEXAS
29 STARS
1847 IOWA
30 STARS
1848 WISCONSIN
31 STARS
1851 CALIFORNIA
32 STARS
1858 MINNESOTA
33 STARS
1859 OREGON
34 STARS
1861 KANSAS
35 STARS
1863 WEST VIRGINIA
36 STARS
1865 NEVADA
37 STARS
1867 NEBRASKA
38 STARS
1877 COLORADO
43 STARS
1890 N. DAKOTA, S. DAKOTA, MONTANA,
WASHINGTON STATE, IDAHO
44 STARS
1891 WYOMING
45 STARS
1896 UTAH
46 STARS
1908 OKLAHOMA
48 STARS
1912 NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA
49 STARS
1959 ALASKA
50 STARS
1960 HAWAII
Star-Spangled Banner:
September 14, 1814 — Francis Scott Key writes "The Star-Spangled Banner." Originally a poem and handbill titled the "Defense of Fort McHenry" that Key had written after 25 continuous hours of bombing, having noticed the flag was still flying when the attack had finished. The public adored it so much they began to sing it in bright, patriotic spirit.
It officially became the National Anthem in 1931.
The Original Poem read as ---
"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
Pledge of Allegiance:
The Original Pledge of Allegiance
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands- one nation indivisible-with liberty and justice for all."
On September 8,1892, the Boston based "The Youth's Companion" magazine published a few words for students to repeat on Columbus Day that year. Written by Francis Bellamy,the circulation manager and native of Rome, New York, and reprinted on thousands of leaflets, was sent out to public schools across the country.
In June of 1954 an amendment was made to add the words "under God". Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower said "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."
The American's Creed
"I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principls of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it againest all enemies."
- William Tyler Page
Old Glory
Our Banner of Liberty
or Star Spangled Banner
Continental Congress Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.
When the flag was first designed there were no specific explanations for the meaning.
Later, when looking to set a seal, Charles Thompson - Secretary for the Continental Congress said the following:
"White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue... signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.
The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."
THE AMERICAN FLAG IN THE COURTS AND IN LEGISLATURE:
1897 - Adoption of State Flag Desecration Statutes — By the late 1800's an organized flag protection movement was born in reaction to perceived commercial and political misuse of the flag. After supporters failed to obtain federal legislation, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota became the first States to adopt flag desecration statutes. By 1932, all of the States had adopted flag desecration laws.
In general, these State laws outlawed: (i) placing any kind of marking on the flag, whether for commercial, political, or other purposes; (ii) using the flag in any form of advertising; and (iii) publicly mutilating, trampling, defacing, defiling, defying or casting contempt, either by words or by act, upon the flag. Under the model flag desecration law, the term "flag" was defined to include any flag, standard, ensign, or color, or any representation of such made of any substance whatsoever and of any size that evidently purported to be said flag or a picture or representation thereof, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and stripes in any number, or by which the person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag of the U.S.
1907 - Halter v. Nebraska (205 U.S. 34) — The Supreme Court holds that although the flag was a federal creation, the States' had the authority to promulgate flag desecration laws under their general police power to safeguard public safety and welfare.
1931 - Stromberg v. California (283 U.S. 359) — The Supreme Court finds that a State statute prohibiting the display of a "red flag" as a sign of opposition to organized government unconstitutionally infringed on the defendant's First Amendment rights. Stromberg represents the Court's first declaration that "symbolic speech" is protected by the First Amendment.
1942 - Federal Flag Code (36 U.S.C. 171 et seq.) — On June 22, 1942, President Roosevelt approves the Federal Flag Code, providing for uniform guidelines for the display and respect shown to the flag. The Flag Code does not prescribe any penalties for non-compliance nor does it include any enforcement provisions, rather it functions simply as a guide for voluntary civilian compliance.
1943 - West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (319 U.S. 624) — The Supreme Court holds that public school children could not be compelled to salute the U.S. flag. In a now famous passage, Justice Jackson highlighted the importance of freedom of expression under the First Amendment:
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.
1949 - August 3 — Truman signs bill requesting the President call for Flag Day (June 14) observance each year by proclamation.
1969 - Adoption of Federal Flag Desecration Law (18 U.S.C. 700 et seq.) — Congress approves the first federal flag desecration law in the wake of a highly publicized Central Park flag burning incident in protest of the Vietnam War. The federal law made it illegal to "knowingly" cast "contempt" upon "any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon it." The law defined flag in an expansive manner similar to most States.
1969 - Street v. New York (394 U.S. 576) — The Supreme Court holds that New York could not convict a person based on his verbal remarks disparaging the flag. Street was arrested after he learned of the shooting of civil rights leader James Meredith and reacted by burning his own flag and exclaiming to a small crowd that if the government could allow Meredith to be killed, "we don't need no damn flag." The Court avoided deciding whether flag burning was protected by the First Amendment, and instead overturned the conviction based on Street's oral remarks. In Street, the Court found there was not a sufficient governmental interest to warrant regulating verbal criticism of the flag.
1972 - Smith v. Goguen (415 U.S. 94) — The Supreme Court holds that Massachusetts could not prosecute a person for wearing a small cloth replica of the flag on the seat of his pants based on a State law making it a crime to publicly treat the flag of the United States with "contempt." The Massachusetts statute was held to be unconstitutionally "void for vagueness."
1974 - Spence v. Washington (418 U.S. 405) — The Supreme Court holds that the State of Washington could not convict a person for attaching removable tape in the form of a peace sign to a flag. The defendant had attached the tape to his flag and draped it outside of his window in protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State killings. The Court again found under the First Amendment there was not a sufficient governmental interest to justify regulating this form of symbolic speech. Although not a flag burning case, this represented the first time the Court had clearly stated that protest involving the physical use of the flag should be seen as a form of protected expression under the First Amendment.
1970-1980 - Revision of State Flag Desecration Statutes — During this period legislatures in some 20 States narrow the scope of their flag desecration laws in an effort to conform to perceived Constitutional restrictions under the Street, Smith, and Spence cases and to more generally parallel the federal law (i.e., focusing more specifically on mutilation and other forms of physical desecration, rather than verbal abuse or commercial or political misuse).
1989 - Texas v. Johnson (491 U.S. 397) — The Supreme Court upholds the Texas Court of Criminal appeals finding that Texas law — making it a crime to "desecrate" or otherwise "mistreat" the flag in a way the "actor knows will seriously offend one or more persons" — was unconstitutional as applied. This was the first time the Supreme Court had directly considered the applicability of the First Amendment to flag burning.
Gregory Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, was arrested during a demonstration outside of the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas after he set fire to a flag while protesters chanted "America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you." In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Brennan, the Court first found that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech subject to protection under the First Amendment. The Court also determined that under United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), since the State law was related to the suppression of freedom of expression, the conviction could only be upheld if Texas could demonstrate a "compelling" interest in its law. The Court next found that Texas' asserted interest in "protecting the peace" was not implicated under the facts of the case. Finally, while the Court acknowledged that Texas had a legitimate interest in preserving the flag as a "symbol of national unity," this interest was not sufficiently compelling to justify a "content based" legal restriction (i.e., the law was not based on protecting the physical integrity of the flag in all circumstances, but was designed to protect it from symbolic protest likely to cause offense to others).
1989 - Revision of Federal Flag Desecration Statute — Pursuant to the Flag Protection Act of 1989, Congress amends the 1968 federal flag desecration statute in an effort to make it "content neutral" and conform to the Constitutional requirements of Johnson. As a result, the 1989 Act sought to prohibit flag desecration under all circumstances by deleting the statutory requirement that the conduct cast contempt upon the flag and narrowing the definition of the term "flag" so that its meaning was not based on the observation of third parties.
1990 - United States v. Eichman (496 U.S. 310) — Passage of the Flag Protection Act results in a number of flag burning incidents protesting the new law. The Supreme Court overturned several flag burning convictions brought under the Flag Protection Act of 1989. The Court holds that notwithstanding Congress' effort to adopt a more content neutral law, the federal law continued to be principally aimed at limiting symbolic speech.
1990 - Rejection of Constitutional Amendment — Following the Eichman decision, Congress considers and rejects a Constitutional Amendment specifying that "the Congress and the States have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The amendment failed to muster the necessary two-thirds Congressional majorities, as it was supported by only a 254 — 177 margin in the House (290 votes were necessary) and a 58 — 42 margin in the Senate (67 votes were necessary).
1995 - December 12 — The Flag Desecration Constitutional Amendment is narrowly defeated in the Senate. The Amendment to the Constitution would make burning the flag a punishable crime.
2005 - January 25 — Constitutional amendment, sponsored by Rep. Duke Cunningham, introduced. It reads simply, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
2005 - June 22 — The Constitutional amendment (see above) is approved by the House (vote of 286-130). It requires Senate approval. Then it must receive approval from 38 states within seven years.
2006 - June 28 — The Senate is one vote short of passing the Constitutional amendment (see above).
June 2007 — proposed: To amend title 4, United States Code, to authorize the Governor of a State, territory, or possession of the United States to order that the National flag be flown at half-staff in that State, territory, or possession in the event of the death of a member of the Armed Forces from that State, territory, or possession who dies while serving on active duty
OTHER NOTES:
Prior to the Betsy Ross Flag, some chose flags with Rattlesnake designs and symbols.
Even after the South seceded from the Union, President Lincoln would not allow any stars to be removed from the flag.
1945 - The flag that flew over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was flown over the White House on August 14, when the Japanese accepted surrender terms.
July 20, 1969 — The American flag was placed on the moon by Neil Armstrong.
September 11, 2001 — The Flag from the World Trade towers survived and became a symbol of sacrifice in service, loss, and determination.
Changes to the Flag are not official without Executive Order.
When a new Flag is designed to add a star(s), the new flag cannot take National position or be official until the following Fourth of July.
1776 JAN. 1 - "GRAND UNION FLAG"
13 red and white alternating stripes and British Union Jack
13 STARS/13 STRIPES
1777 BETSY ROSS FLAG - Adopted
DELAWARE, PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, GEORGIA, CONNECTICUT, MASSACHUSETTS, MARYLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, RHODE ISLAND
15 STARS/15 STRIPES
1795 KENTUCKY, VERMONT
20 STARS/13 STRIPES
1818 TENNESSEE, OHIO, LOUISIANA, INDIANA, MISSISSIPPI
21 STARS
1819 ILLINOIS
23 STARS
1820 ALABAMA, MAINE
24 STARS
1822 MISSOURI
25 STARS
1836 ARKANSAS
26 STARS
1837 MICHIGAN
27 STARS
1845 FLORIDA
28 STARS
1846 TEXAS
29 STARS
1847 IOWA
30 STARS
1848 WISCONSIN
31 STARS
1851 CALIFORNIA
32 STARS
1858 MINNESOTA
33 STARS
1859 OREGON
34 STARS
1861 KANSAS
35 STARS
1863 WEST VIRGINIA
36 STARS
1865 NEVADA
37 STARS
1867 NEBRASKA
38 STARS
1877 COLORADO
43 STARS
1890 N. DAKOTA, S. DAKOTA, MONTANA,
WASHINGTON STATE, IDAHO
44 STARS
1891 WYOMING
45 STARS
1896 UTAH
46 STARS
1908 OKLAHOMA
48 STARS
1912 NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA
49 STARS
1959 ALASKA
50 STARS
1960 HAWAII
Star-Spangled Banner:
September 14, 1814 — Francis Scott Key writes "The Star-Spangled Banner." Originally a poem and handbill titled the "Defense of Fort McHenry" that Key had written after 25 continuous hours of bombing, having noticed the flag was still flying when the attack had finished. The public adored it so much they began to sing it in bright, patriotic spirit.
It officially became the National Anthem in 1931.
The Original Poem read as ---
"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
Pledge of Allegiance:
The Original Pledge of Allegiance
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands- one nation indivisible-with liberty and justice for all."
On September 8,1892, the Boston based "The Youth's Companion" magazine published a few words for students to repeat on Columbus Day that year. Written by Francis Bellamy,the circulation manager and native of Rome, New York, and reprinted on thousands of leaflets, was sent out to public schools across the country.
In June of 1954 an amendment was made to add the words "under God". Then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower said "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."
The American's Creed
"I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principls of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it againest all enemies."
- William Tyler Page