Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19371776 Club

Pennsylvania is the first state to make Flag Day a legal holiday

The June 14 date has carried a presidential proclamation for twenty years, but no state had put it on the books until Harrisburg acts today.

By 1937, Flag Day had been a presidential proclamation for twenty years and a proposed national holiday for decades longer — but no state had put it on the books. Pennsylvania changed that, becoming the first state in the union to designate June 14 as an official state holiday, a distinction it still holds alone. The move formalized what advocates like Pittsburgh native William T. Kerr and Wisconsin schoolteacher Bernard Cigrand had spent the better part of a lifetime pushing toward…

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More from June 14
1777

Congress sets the flag: thirteen stripes, thirteen stars, "a new constellation"

The Flag Resolution names no designer, specifies no arrangement, and says nothing about which stripe color comes first.
1775

Congress creates a Continental Army; thirteen colonies, one command at last

Six weeks after Lexington and Concord, the patchwork of local militias gets a shared structure, a common supply, and a single authority over the fight against Britain.
1846

Thirty-three armed settlers seize Sonoma before dawn; California declares itself a republic

General Vallejo is taken prisoner in his own home, 170 government horses are seized, and a hand-sewn bear flag now flies over the barracks.
18631776 Club
In three days, Early and Johnson overwhelm ten Union forts, taking 4,000 prisoners, 23 guns, and 300 wagons at a cost of only 269 Confederate casualties.
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Read the full June 14 edition →Everything that happened on June 14 →
More from The World Wars
1918

2,711 guns open fire before dawn as America's biggest offensive begins

The barrage alone cost about a million dollars a minute, before a single soldier crossed the wire.
1940

Berlin ceremony formalizes Germany, Italy, and Japan into the Axis alliance

The three powers pledge mutual support if any is attacked, carving the world into spheres of control.
1941

Fourteen freighters hit the water at once; Roosevelt calls them Liberty ships

At Baltimore's Bethlehem-Fairfield yard, the President borrows Patrick Henry's own words to name a fleet still unbuilt.
1942

Five Marine battalions cross the Matanikau in a pincer; the Japanese line east of the river breaks

A carefully drawn trap at the river mouth and an inland footbridge catches Japanese troops before they can finish digging in near Henderson Field.
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