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A day to salute the flag

Today is Flag Day.

At the Betsy Ross House on Arch Street, "Betsy Ross" gives a corner of the American flag to Deneah Keller of the Preparatory Charter School in South Philadelphia. Keller helped raise the flag as part of Flag Day ceremonies.
At the Betsy Ross House on Arch Street, "Betsy Ross" gives a corner of the American flag to Deneah Keller of the Preparatory Charter School in South Philadelphia. Keller helped raise the flag as part of Flag Day ceremonies.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
    by Inquirer Staff Report
    Published 

Today is Flag Day.

On this date in 1777 - 233 years ago - the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the stars and stripes as the flag of the United States.

Flag Day is not a federal holiday.

But commemorations of the day date back to 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing June 14 as Flag Day.

Philadelphia's Betsy Ross is perhaps the nation's best known flag maker, but historians say the story of her involvement in the creation of the U.S. flag is more legend than fact.

But Ross, who was Elizabeth Claypoole when she died in 1836, did help supply the nation with flags in post-Revolutionary America from the shop she operated with her daughters.