What is Flag Day and What Alabama City is Known as the City of Six Flags?

By Savanah Kirchner

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Every year, Flag Day is celebrated June 14 to commemorate the adoption of the U.S. flag and to honor its meaning. The flag’s stripes represent the original 13 colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are also symbolic, with white symbolizing purity, red for valor, and blue representing justice.

On June 14, 1777, the British Grand Union Flag, representing loyalty to England and identification of the colonies, was replaced with the first American flag featuring 13 stars and 13 stripes. The Flag Act of 1777 resolved that “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white” and that “the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

In 1885, Bernard Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher, held the first formal observance of Flag Day. The following year, he authored “The Fourteenth of June,” where he proposed an annual celebration of the stars and stripes. Known as the “Father of Flag Day,” Cigrand served as president of the American Flag Day Association and the National Flag Day Society.

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