Americans celebrate their flag every year, and the holiday was born in Wisconsin

By TERESA CRAWFORD and JOHN O’CONNOR
Associated Press

WAUBEKA, Wis. (AP) — Each June, Waubeka, Wisconsin, venerates one of the nation’s more enduring symbols with a holiday that escapes the notice of many Americans. Flag Day commemorates June 14, 1777, when Congress decreed the flag’s design. Waubeka, in north suburban Milwaukee, lays claim to the first Flag Day — in 1885 when a schoolteacher assigned his students essays on what the flag means. It became a federal observance in 1949. Waubeka has celebrated it on the second Sunday in June for 78 years.