More than 75 years after Flag Day became U.S. law, the stars and stripes grab our gaze these days in constant portraits of how Americans see their country's promise — sometimes dotted along historic graves of military veterans, draped upside down over a protester, or painted on a barn.
Flag Day commemorates the 1777 approval of a national flag design by the Continental Congress. It was established by federal law in 1949 as June 14. Observances preceded that, including in 1891 at a Philadelphia house of Betsy Ross. But the fervor for the flag that exists today has strong roots in the Civil War, when flag bearers were regarded with particularly high honor.
