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Supervisor Ranalli recommending the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign a Proclamation recognizing Thursday, June 14, 2018, as Flag Day and as the 64th Anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's signature of the Joint Resolution that amended the Pledge of Allegiance to include the words "under God."
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The Second Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as our official flag on June 14, 1777. To commemorate the adoption of our nation's flag, the Congress, by Joint Resolution approved on August 3, 1949, designated June 14 of each year as "Flag Day" and requested that the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its observance and for the display of the flag of the United States on all Federal Government buildings.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy and was formally included in the U.S. Flag Code by Congress on June 22, 1942. The official name of the Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945.
In 1951, the Knights of Columbus began including the words "under God" in their Pledge of Allegiance. In April 1951, the Board of Directors of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution to amend the Pledge of Allegiance as recited at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words "one nation." The idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that the change be made general and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. This effort led to several official attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus' policy for the entire nation.
At its annual meeting the following year, on August 20, 1953, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus repeated its resolution to make this amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag general and to again send copies of this resolve to the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House and to this time include each member of both Houses of Congress. This action resulted in the introduction of seventeen resolutions in the House of Representatives to amend the Pledge of Allegiance as set forth in the Public Law relating to the use of the flag.
On Flag Day, June 14, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a Joint Resolution of Congress to amend § 4 of the Flag Code to incorporate the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, thereby making official the amendment conceived, sponsored and put into practice by the Knights of Columbus more than three years earlier.