A Brief History of Flag Day
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 14th, 2014 11:08 pm by HL
A Brief History of Flag Day
Ingloriously crammed between the summer’s other two big holidays — that would be Memorial Day and Labor Day — Flag Day doesn’t tend to get much respect. Perhaps things would be different if we got the day off, or if there was any kind of actual glamour surrounding the holiday, perhaps the advent of a signature Flag Day snack or cocktail? Or maybe Flag Day just needs something simple — like a brief history — to help contextualize it against the backdrop of summer’s better-known holidays. Every June 14, the United States doesn’t just celebrate the flag as a single entity; it actually celebrates the adoption of the flag itself, which happened nice and early in American history on June 14, 1777. Basically, Flag Day is the birthday of the American flag. Please don’t celebrate with candles and cake.
Ukraine Military Plane Shot Down, 49 Die
A Ukrainian military plane was shot down by separatists early Saturday while approaching an airport in Luhansk, killing all 49 people on board. Ukraine’s defense ministry said the plane, which was transporting military personnel, was shot down by insurgents using anti-aircraft machine guns. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Saturday held telephone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and stressed the importance of reaching a cease-fire in Ukraine and avoiding the transfer of fighters and weapons across the Ukrainian-Russian border.
