Flag Day
Today is Flag Day, the day set aside to commemorate the adoption of the official Flag of the United States by resolution of the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. That resolution stated “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.”
Birthday
Today is also the Birthday of the United States Army, celebrating Jun 14, 1775, when Congress adopted “the American continental army” by a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole
It was President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 who first proclaimed June 14 as an official Flag Day. And an Act of Congress established Flag Day in 1949, although it is not an official federal holiday, but rather at the President’s discretion to officially proclaim the observance. Pennsylvania was the first state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday. The President can proclaim the entire week Flag Week.,
It was in December, 1773, that the Sons of Liberty dumped all those chests of tea from ships at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston into Boston Harbor, letting the British know the dissatisfaction of the colonists with the ever increasing taxes on the colonies.
That led to the British Parliament passing a series of acts known as the Intolerable Acts, to punish the colonists for their defiance. Those acts included not only more taxes but also a directive to house British troops in their homes and quit elections. That led to increased tension and more violence and the firing on the colonists’ militia at Lexington and Concord.
Two months into that conflict, in the face of actual war rather than civil disturbance, the Continental Congress created the Continental Army as united in response to the British enemy. This new Continental Army included 10 companies of riflemen. Men from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were the first to volunteer. Congress, by a vote, named General George Washington Commander in Chief and the rest is history.
The Army is the oldest of all of the nation’s armed forces.
