The modern United States receives its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the
Union as the 50th state (above). The president also issued an order
for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows:
five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new U.S. flag became
official July 4, 1960.

In 1931 Herbert Hoover signed a bill into law officially adopting “The
Star Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States 
of America.

Herbert Clark Hoover
(August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964)

Hoover served as the 31st president of the
United States from 1929 to 1933.

The American flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary
War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. Patriot General William Maxwell
ordered the stars and strips banner raised as a detachment of his infantry
and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. The rebels
were defeated and forced to retreat to General George Washington’s main
force near Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania.

Three months before, on June 14, the Continental Congress adopted a
resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate
stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue
field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag, which became
known as the “Stars and Stripes,” was based on the “Grand Union” flag,
a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of
13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress
Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which
consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request
of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to
conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence,
new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union.

In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original
stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states.

In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. … In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14
as Flag Day; on August 3, 1949, National Flag Day was established by an
Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson
(December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924)

SANDY KOZEL

During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of
Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and
raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and
recorded the event.

Louis R. "Lou" Lowery (July 24, 1916 – April 15, 1987)