Thursday is Flag Day, a day dedicated to Old Glory and its adoption as a symbol of our freedom back in 1777.

The day of June 14 is historic because the Continental Congress passed an official resolution on June 14, 1777, “that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”

After three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day, a government website dedicated to Flag Day said.

There was no specific direction of how the stars were to be arranged, producing several different designs of stars –  some arranged in a circle, and some arranged in horizontal lines, the Washington Post said. It was up to the flag maker’s discretion as to how the stars were to be arranged on the field of blue.

Flag Day is not a federal holiday, however, and thus does not appeal to Americans as much as Memorial Day or July 4.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Flag Day was not included in the 1968 Uniform Holiday Act, the legislation that set the framework for the 11 official federal holidays and multiple three-day weekends that U.S. workers know today.

Flag Day is a bit of an orphan holiday, the Monitor said. It does not have the historical status of Washington’s Birthday nor does it have the backing of organized interest groups that helped produce Labor Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

But the Post said the design of the flag is recognized as a symbol of the people – the red and white stripes represent the original thirteen colonies and the stars were meant to represent each new state that entered the union. Fundamentally, the flag represented the organization of each of the populations in their respective geographic regions.

The flag essentially represented the unity of the people in their desperate desire for freedom, the Post said.

So with that being said, raise the flag with pride today and every day!