[Sgt>Stackem]

Its tomorrow, Tuesday June 14th
Flag Day honors the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as our national flag by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. This new flag symbolizes the new nation, the United States of America.

The Stars and Stripes first flew in a Flag Day celebration in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1861, the first summer of the Civil War. The first national observance of Flag Day came on June 14, 1877, the centennial of the original flag resolution. In the decades that followed, many individuals and organizations pressed to have Flag Day observed regularly.

One individual who waged a life-long crusade for a national Flag day observance was Bernard J. Cigrand. As a teacher in the Stony Hill School near Waubeka, Wisconsin, he kept on his desk mounted in a bottle, a 38-star flag, 10 inches high. At the close of school in 1885, Cigrand observed a first Flag Birth Day with his pupils.

The concept of the PAUSE FOR THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE is for all Americans everywhere to pause for a moment on June 14, Flag Day, at 7:00 p.m. EDT to say simultaneously the thirty-one words of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. This simple ceremony is recognized by Congress as part of National Flag Day ceremonies. (Public Law 99-54)