Doug Hinshaw, age 14, of Davenport, Iowa, for his question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST FLAG DAY?
Flag Day was first officially celebrated in the United States in 1877 on the 100th anniversary of the selection of the flag. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the nation.
Flag Day is not an official national holiday, but the President proclaims a public Flag Day observance every year. Pennsylvania celebrates Flag Day as a legal holiday.
President Woodrow Wilson established Flag Day as an annual national celebration in his proclamation, issued on May 30, 1916.
After the celebration in 1877, many people suggested that Flag Day be observed on June 14 each year. In 1885, Bernard Cigrand, a schoolteacher in Waubeka, Wisc., began a lifetime fight to establish Flag Day as an annual national celebration.
In 1897, the governor of New York proclaimed a Flag Day celebration for the first time as an annual event in that state.