In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14; it commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States.

Legend has it that it was George Washington and two other members of the Continental Congress who asked Betsy Ross to sew the first American flag sometime in the late spring of 1776.

The young widow was only in her early 20s when she completed the first flag with 13. stars arranged in a circle. They represented the 13 American colonies which rallied around the new flag in their fight against the British for self-governance.

To the original members of the Continental Congress, red stood for hardiness and courage, white for purity and innocence and blue for vigilance and justice.

The 13 colonies included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. Instead of 13 stars, today the number of stars on the U.S. flag has grown to 50, representing every State in the Union.

A year later in 1777, the Continental Congress officially adopted the design for the national flag and henceforth the Stars and Stripes symbolized the United States around the world.

The first Flag Day was celebrated in 1877. A grass roots movement resulted in President Woodrow Wilson issuing a proclamation that called for a nationwide observance of Flag Day on June 14. This was made a permanent observance in America in 1949 by Congress who resolved “That the 14th day of June of each year is hereby designated as Flag Day.”

Working as a grade school teacher in Waubeka, Wisconsin in 1885, Bernard J. Cigrand held the first recognized formal observance of Flag Day at the Stony Hill School. Throughout his life he continued to promote Flag Day and the Chicago Tribune noted that he “almost singlehandedly” established the holiday.

During the 1913 City of Paterson, New Jersey, silk strike, WWI leader “Big” Bill Haywood asserted that someday all of the world’s flags would be red, “the color of the working man’s blood.” In response, the city’s leaders (who opposed the strike) declared March 17 to be “Flag Day” and saw to it that each of the city’s textile mills flew an American flag. This attempt by Paterson’s leaders to portray the strikers as un- American backfired when the strikers marched through the city with American flags of their own, along with a banner that stated: “We weave the flag. We live under the flag. We die under the flag. But damned if we”ll starve under the flag.”

Perhaps the oldest continuing Flag Day Parade is in Fairfield, Washington. Beginning in 1909 or 1910, it has held a parade every year since, with the possible exception of 1918, and celebrated the “Centennial” parade in 2010, along with some other commemorative events. The largest parade is held annually in Troy, New York, which bases its parade on the Quincy parade and typically draws 50,000 spectators.

During National Flag Week, the president will issue a proclamation urging U.S. citizens to fly Old Glory for the duration of that week.