Flag Day
- June 13, 2026
- Open House – Bring your family and students to learn about our American Flag
- B-17 Alliance Museum & Restoration Hangar at McNary Field, Salem
Join the B-17 Alliance Foundation at McNary Field – Salem, Oregon in honor of celebrating National Flag Day, celebrated by Americans June 14.
Learn about the United States flag, history, and receive a free small flag giveaway.
Learn about the United States flag, history, and receive a free small flag giveaway.
Flag Day is also called National holiday Flag Day in the United States. A day to honor and fly our national flag. The holiday commemorates June 14, 1777, when the United States approved the design for its first national flag.
The idea to set aside a day to honor the national flag came from several sources. Bernard J. Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher, in 1885 urged his students to observe June 14 as “Flag Birthday.” He later wrote an essay published in a Chicago newspaper that urged Americans to proclaim this date as the day to celebrate the flag. In 1888 William T. Kerr of Pennsylvania founded the American Flag Day Association of Western Pennsylvania, an organization to which he dedicated his life. A lesser-known claim is that of George Morris of Connecticut, who is said to have organized the first formal celebration of the day in Hartford in 1861.
In 1916 Pres. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 as the official date for Flag Day, and in 1949 the U.S. Congress permanently established the date as National Flag Day. Although Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, Pennsylvania celebrates the day as a state holiday. Each year the U.S. president delivers an address that proclaims the week of June 14 as National Flag Week, and all Americans are encouraged to fly U.S. flags during that week.
Join B-17 Alliance on Saturday June 13, 2026, to honor traditions and our American flag.