Colored Cloth Day
June 14, 2009 1:49 pm > MAUI TODAY |
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Flag Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hae: Flag PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Bihainim: Follow HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “It is the tail that makes the kite fly.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”(Samuel Johnson)
Flag Day in the U.S. commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened by resolution of the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. “Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The first flag was created by Betsy Ross, who in June 1776, was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Impressed with her sewing skills, members of the Continental Congress including George Washington, entrusted Betsy with making the first U.S. flag.
The idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the flag is believed to have first originated in 1885 by B.J. Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.
Fortunately, those pretend-patriotic zealots who have attempted to constitutionally outlaw desecration of the U.S. flag have so far been unsuccessful.
EVENTS ON THIS DAY – June 14th
- 1903: Ironwood Trees Planted in Hawaii. In an experiment which became a rousing success, Ironwood trees planted at Kapi’olani Park on Oahu show just how hardy they can be even by the ocean, with salt mist. They grow like weeds. During the next ten years, Ironwoods are planted on Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, and depending on who you ask, are either a wonderful and resourceful bit of greenery, or a “non-native invasive species.”
- 1642: First compulsory education law in America passed by Massachusetts
- 1775: U.S. Army founded
- 1777: Continental Congress adopts Stars & Stripes replacing Grand Union flag
- 1842: “Bear” flag of the Republic of California first raised by American settlers at Sonoma
- 1900: Hawaiian Republic becomes the U.S. Territory of Hawaii
- 1942: Walt Disney’s “Bambi” is released
- 1944: First B-29 raid against mainland Japan
- 1951: First commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, enters service at Census Bureau
- 1953: Elvis Presley graduates from LC Humes High School in Memphis, Tenn
- 1954: President Eisenhower signs order adding words “under God” to the Pledge
- 1985: Shiite Muslim extremists hijack a airplane and hold the passengers for 16 days
- 1989: Ground breaking begins in Minnesota on the world’s largest mall, the Mega-Mall! (Re-named to ‘Mall of America’ before it opened.)
BORN ON THIS DAY – June 14th
- 1896: Harriet Beecher Stowe, author
- 1928: Che Guevara, communist tactician of guerrilla warfare
- 1933: Jerzy Kosinski, writer
- 1961: Boy George O’Dowd, rock musician
- 1969: Steffi Graf, tennis player
- 1946: Donald Trump, real estate developer, TV personality
- 1971: Traylor Howard, actress
- 1992: Daryl Sabara, actor
DIED ON THIS DAY – June 14th
- 1914: Adlai Stevenson I, American politician, 23rd Vice President (b. 1835)
- 1920: Max Weber, German sociologist (b. 1864)
- 1926: Mary Cassatt, American artist (b. 1843)
- 1936: G. K. Chesterton, English author (b. 1874)
- 1994: Henry Mancini, American composer (b. 1924)
- 1995: Rory Gallagher, Irish guitarist (b. 1949)
- 2000: Attilio Bertolucci, Italian poet and writer (b. 1911)
- 2007: Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and statesman (b. 1918)
