The earliest reference to the suggestion of a “Flag Day” was by Victor Morris of Connecticut, where the city of Hartford observed that day in 1861 but it did not become a tradition.
Bernard J. Cigrand generally is credited with being the “Father of Flag Day,” with the Chicago Tribune noting that he “almost singlehandedly” established the holiday. A grade school teacher in Waubeka, in eastern Wisconsin, Cigrand held the first recognized formal observance of Flag Day at the Stony Hill School in 1885. From the late 1880s on, Cigrand spoke on the need for the annual observance of a flag day on June 14, the day in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes.
In 1916, inspired by Cigrand’s actions, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 to be Flag Day, but the day was not officially established by an Act of Congress until 1949.
Flag Day
