President Reagan on Flag Day, June 14th
By
CFACT Ed
|
June 14th, 2025
My fellow Americans:
Today we celebrate Flag Day, the birthday of our Stars and Stripes. As we think back over the history of our nation’s flag, we remember that the story of its early years was often one of hardship and trials, sometimes a fight for simple survival.
Such is the story behind our Star-Spangled Banner. It was 2 years into the War of 1812, and America seemed to be teetering on the edge of defeat. The British had already taken our Capital and burned the White House. Baltimore was the next target in a grand design to divide our forces and crush this newly independent nation of upstart colonies. All that stood between the British and Baltimore were the guns of Fort McHenry, blocking their entry into Baltimore Harbor.
The British bombardment lasted for 25 hours. Through the dark hours of the night, the rockets fired and the bombs exploded. And a young American patriot named Key, held captive aboard a British ship, watched anxiously for some proof, some sign, that liberty would prevail. You can imagine his joy when the next morning, in the dawn’s early light, he looked out and saw the banner still flying — a little tattered and torn, but still flying proudly above the ramparts. Fort McHenry and the brave men manning it had withstood the assault. Baltimore was saved. The United States, this great experiment in human freedom, as George Washington described it, would endure.
https://www.cfact.org/2025/06/14/president-reagan-on-flag-day-june-14th/
