Today is Sunday, June 14, the 165th day of 2026. There are 200 days left in the year. This is Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption of the United States flag.

Historical Events

On June 14, 1940, German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis transported their first prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

Also on this date, in 1775, the Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created by the Second Continental Congress. In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the first ‘stars and stripes’ American flag.

In 1846, a group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaimed the breakaway state of the California Republic, declaring independence from Mexico. In 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown embarked on the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States or recite the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill adding the phrase ‘under God’ to the Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1972, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end. In 1982, Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands, ending the 74-day Falklands War and returning the islands to British control.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced his nomination of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2005, Michelle Wie, 15, became the first female player to qualify for an adult male U.S. Golf Association championship, tying for first place in a 36-hole U.S. Amateur Public Links sectional qualifying tournament.

In 2017, fire ripped through the 24-story Grenfell Tower residential building in West London, killing 72 people. In 2018, a Justice Department watchdog report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe criticized the FBI and its former director, James Comey, but did not find evidence that political bias tainted the investigation.

In 2025, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were gunned down at their suburban Minneapolis home in what authorities called a politically motivated killing.

Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.