Historic legacy of 'Old Glory'

WASHINGTON -- The first Flag Day observance in the United States took place June 14, 1861, "and it occurred only because the people of Hartford, Connecticut, wished to express their support for the Union during the opening days of the Civil War," according to the American Book of Days.

In 1877, on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the banner, Congress ordered that the flag be flown over public buildings on June 14. The practice grew in the nation's largest cities.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation asking the nation to observe June 14 as Flag Day. But official designation did not come until August, 3, 1949, when Congress agreed to a joint resolution and it was approved by President Harry Truman.

The former British colonies in America, having rebelled against Great Britain in 1776, adopted a new national flag on June 14, 1777. During the early days of the Revolutionary War, the rebels fought under the banners of their individual colonies or local militias.

CNN ACCESS Dr. Spencer Crew: preserving Star Spangled Banner     ALSO Parts of famous U.S. flag on display

Some Americans flew the Grand Union Flag -- with 13 alternating red and white stripes and a canton bearing the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, which "symbolized many Americans' hope of eventual reconciliation with Britain" -- according to the Book of Days, and was used from 1775 until June 14, 1777.

On that date, Congress resolved:

"That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union (canton) be thirteen stars, white in blue field, representing a new constellation."

Philadelphia upholsterer Betsy Ross, according to legend, sewed the first American flag that followed the design resolved by Congress.

The legend dates from a paper Ross's grandson read to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870 retelling his grandmother's stories about the flag's creations.

"The appealing vignette of General Washington visiting the needlewoman quickly caught the popular imagination, and Betsy Ross's name became linked with the banner," the book says.

"Historians, however, have not been able to corroborate Canby's [Ross's grandson] report; the only provable facts about Mrs. Ross are that she was a patriot upholsterer living in Philadelphia during the American revolution, and that some time before May 1777 she made several Pennsylvania naval flags of unknown design."

With nationhood and the growth of the United States, the flag became crowded. A 15-star,15-stripe flag was used from 1795-1818, after two more states were added to the original 13.

A law fixing the number of stripes at 13 and providing for addition of a new star for each new state took effect July 4, 1818.

Source: The American Book of Days; third edition; compiled and edited by Jane M. Hatch; the H.W. Wilson Company, New York.