This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Churchill: The Power of Words". Archived from the original on 16 August 2016 . Retrieved 16 August 2016. Two days later, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that with immediate effect the Union Flag would fly from the flag pole above the front entrance of 10 Downing Street on every day of the year. The intention was to increase feelings of British national identity. Other UK government departments were asked to follow this lead, and all government buildings in Whitehall did so. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]

The first official U.S. flag flown during battle was on August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler (Fort Stanwix) during the Siege of Fort Stanwix. Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler. Soldiers cut up their shirts to make the white stripes; scarlet material to form the red was secured from red flannel petticoats of officers' wives, while material for the blue union was secured from Capt. Abraham Swartwout's blue cloth coat. A voucher is extant that Congress paid Capt. Swartwout of Dutchess County for his coat for the flag. [20]The flag consists of the red cross of Saint George, patron saint of England, superimposed on the saltire of Saint Andrew, patron saint of Scotland. Its correct proportions are 3:5. The blue field on the flag was sky blue at first, but over time, the blue began to darken. [5] Despite a number of attempts to ban the practice, desecration of the flag remains protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Scholars have noted the irony that "[t]he flag is so revered because it represents the land of the free, and that freedom includes the ability to use or abuse that flag in protest". [82] Comparing practice worldwide, Testi noted in 2010 that the United States was not unique in adoring its banner, for the flags of Scandinavian countries are also "beloved, domesticated, commercialized and sacralized objects". [83] Color symbolism Kelly, Ralph (8 August 2017). "A flag for the Empire" (PDF). The Flag Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 August 2023 . Retrieved 13 August 2023.

Union Flag: approved designs". www.college-of-arms.gov.uk. College of Arms. 2023 . Retrieved 23 February 2023. a b c d e f "Section 8: Other Flags". canada.ca. Department of National Defence. 4 February 2019. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020 . Retrieved 27 November 2019. Prothero, David (28 March 2006). "United Kingdom: lighthouse authorities". Flags of the World. Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses - Commissioner's flag. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022 . Retrieved 6 January 2022. Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia In 1964, Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson introduced plans to replace the Union Flag with a new national flag, spurring the Great Canadian flag debate. [105] A new national flag, the Maple Leaf, was approved by the parliament of Canada on 17 December 1964. [105] However, on the following day, the Canadian parliament passed another resolution that designated the Union Flag as the Royal Union Flag and authorised its official use as the symbol of the country's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and its allegiance to the Crown. [107] The move was a concession given to those who preferred to adopt the Canadian Red Ensign as a formal national flag. On 15 February 1965, the maple leaf flag formally replaced the Union Flag as the flag of Canada following an official proclamation by Elizabeth II, [105] with the Royal Union Flag becoming an official ceremonial flag. [107] The Royal Union Flag next to the flag of Canada during a Remembrance Day parade in Stirling, Ontario, 2009Would the blue have to be taken out of Union flag if Scotland became independent?". Daily Record. 7 June 2012. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014 . Retrieved 4 December 2013. The flag has been displayed on every U.S. spacecraft designed for crewed flight starting from John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight in 1962, including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Command/Service Module, Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle. [109] The flag also appeared on the S-IC first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle used for Apollo. Nevertheless, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were launched and landed vertically and could not horizontal atmospheric flight as the Space Shuttle did on its landing approach, so the streaming convention was not followed. These flags were oriented with the stripes running horizontally, perpendicular to the direction of flight. by the 1970s, "its current official dimension of l/30th the width of the flag" The Flag Bulletin, Volumes 12–14, Flag Research Center (1973), p. 85.