North Bergen, Guttenberg & WNY Hold Joint Flag Day Ceremony in Braddock Park

Three, North Hudson municipalities, North Bergen, Guttenberg and West New York, held a joint flag retirement ceremony on Tuesday afternoon in James Braddock Park, as the County celebrated Flag Day.  Numerous American flags were set ablaze, having been determined to be in tattered condition.

Members of the North Bergen High School Marching Band and Color Guard participated in the ceremony, which was attended by numerous veterans and elected officials.

              The June 14th holiday commemorates the date in 1777 when the United States approved the design for its first national flag.  Some interesting facts about Flag Day include:

• It was June 14^th, 1777 that the 2^nd Continental Congress passed a resolution that stating that “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white and that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.”
• A little known fact… it was a New Jersey resident who actually designed the flag – not Betsy Ross.  Francis Hopkinson, a Congressman from the Garden State and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, designed the flag.
• In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson marked the anniversary by establishing June 14^th as Flag Day.
• In 1960, a 17 yr old High School student from Ohio who designed the current 50-star pattern of the flag, and it is the only version of the American flag which has lasted for more than 50 years.
• There have been 27 versions of the American flag.