A brief history of our nation's flag as it turns 245 years old | Opinion

Tuesday was Today is Flag Day. It commemorates the Stars and Stripes adopted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, as the U.S. flag. Although Flag Day is a legal holiday only in Pennsylvania, the president can call for its observance each year by proclamation. Our flag has had a long and colorful history since it was believed to be designed by Betsy Griscom Ross in 1776.

Ross was born in Philadelphia in 1752 and married an Episcopal clergyman in 1773. She was a seamstress who ran an upholstery shop after his death three years later. It was said that she was asked by George Washington and other patriots to make a flag for the new nation and her design was adopted.

Ross' second husband, John Ross, a militiaman, was accidentally killed when the gun powder he was guarding exploded in 1776 shortly after they were married. The story of her involvement with the flag came to light when her grandson, William Canby, made a speech about it at the Philadelphia Historical Society in March 1870 as the country prepared to celebrate its centennial.

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The first unofficial flag was called the Grand Union Flag or the Continental Colours and was flown at Gen. George Washington's headquarters on Jan. 1, 1776. It had 13 alternating red and white horizontal stripes and the British Union Flag. The first official national flag, known as the Stars and Stripes, was approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.

It had 13 stars representing the original colonies and it is not certain who designed it.

After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted to the Union in 1791 and 1792, respectively, two more stars and stripes were added in 1795. It was the "Star-Spangled Banner' that inspired lawyer Francis Key to write the poem that became the U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931.

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The flag would undergo many more changes, beginning in 1818 when five more states were admitted to the Union. Congress then passed legislation fixing the number of stripes at 15 and the number of stars to equal the number of states. The 50th star was added on July 14, 1960, to represent Hawaii.

Old Glory, as the flag is called, has been memorialized in numerous ways, including its description by Key as he observed the attack by the British on Fort McHenry at Baltimore Sept. 13-14, 1814: "O say, can you see, By the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, Thro' the perilous fight … "

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The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag was published in the Sept. 8, 1892, issue of the Youth Companion in Boston. Its authorship was eventually credited to Francis Bellamy in 1939. It said (with the "Under God" phrase added on June 14, 1954): "l pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

As we celebrate the 245th anniversary of our flag, we note that the world's oldest flag is that of Denmark, dating to 1219.

Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 865-546-1576.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: A brief history of our nation's flag as it turns 245 years old