Flag Day falls on June 14 each year because that date in 1777 marks when the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the design for the country’s first official flag.

That original flag carried 13 stars and 13 stripes, each element representing one of the thirteen colonies that had broken from British rule.

The resolution adopting the flag described its stars as forming “a new constellation,” a phrase meant to capture the idea of a young nation announcing itself to the world.

Since that first design was approved, the American flag has been revised 26 times, with each update adding stars to reflect states entering the Union.

Whether Betsy Ross actually created the original flag remains a point of genuine historical dispute, despite her story becoming one of the most enduring legends surrounding the nation’s founding.

Before the Stars and Stripes was formally established, Continental troops carried a variety of different flags into battle during the Revolutionary War.

One flag that predated the official design, known as the Grand Union Flag, featured the British Union Jack in its upper corner even as American forces were actively fighting Britain. That flag bears a striking resemblance to the current flag of Hawaii.

The title “Father of Flag Day” is commonly applied to Bernard J. Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher who began advocating for a national observance of the date as early as 1885.

Part of Cigrand’s early effort involved asking his students to write essays reflecting on the flag’s personal meaning to them, a classroom exercise that helped plant the seeds of a broader national movement.

Woodrow Wilson gave the observance its first formal national acknowledgment in 1916, doing so through presidential proclamation.

Official congressional recognition came much later. Harry S. Truman signed legislation in 1949 establishing Flag Day as a permanent national observance. Even so, Flag Day does not carry federal holiday status, so most workplaces and schools treat it as an ordinary day.

Pennsylvania stands apart as the only state to grant Flag Day the standing of a legal state holiday.

During World War II, the observance was temporarily recast as “United Flag Day” to express unity among the Allied nations opposing the Axis powers, a version of the holiday that Franklin D. Roosevelt championed starting in 1942.

A widely held misunderstanding about flag etiquette is that burning the American flag is always illegal. In fact, ceremonially burning a worn or damaged flag is a formally recognized and accepted method of retiring it with dignity. Separately, the Supreme Court has also ruled that burning a flag as an act of political expression is constitutionally protected free speech.