Flag Day 2016

On this day in 1777 the Second Continental Congress adopted a design for the flag of the United States. This year we celebrate the centennial of President Woodrow Wilson's proclamation officially establishing June 14 as Flag Day.

The original Star Spangled Banner, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

                                                                           The Star Spangled Banner

                                                                            Verse 4

It wouldn't be right to have Flag Day without music so here's a rousing tribute to Old Glory from the 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, a biopic of the American songwriter, George M. Cohan. If you don't know this film it's worth viewing as one of the most entertaining biographies out of Hollywood as well as a prime example of wartime propaganda. Morale was marginal that year on both the home front and the battlefield. Any lift in spirit would help sustain our allied fight against the evil infecting Europe and the Pacific at that time. The film certainly rallied that spirit. It was a patriotic blockbuster winning several Oscars and . The clip below comes from the computer colorized version produced by Ted Turner in 1986.

Sources

Text:

Yankee Doodle Dandy entry, wikipedia.org