Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 89.djvu/1338

 89 STAT. 1278

PROCLAMATION 4378—MAY 28, 1975 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentyseventh day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventyfive, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth. GERALD R. FORD

EDITORIAL N O T E: For the President's address to the Nation of May 27, 1975, on energy programs, see the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 11, p. 5 6 3).

Proclamation 4378

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May 28, 1975

Flag Day and National Flag Week, 1975 By the President of the tJnited States of America A Proclamation Two hundred years ago, American minutemen raised their muskets at the Old North Bridge. What Ralph Waldo Emerson called "the shot heard around the world" rang out. The American Revolution had begun. Two years later, while the outcome of the Revolutionary War remained in doubt, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on June 14, 1777, and approved the following resolution: "Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

That short and unadorned declaration gave birth to our flag. With the addition of thirty-seven stars, and after two centuries of history, the flag chosen in Philadelphia is our flag today, symbolizing our commitment as a people to freedom, equaUty, and independence. To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by a joint resolution of August 3, 1949 (63 Stat. 492, 36 U.S.C. 157), designated June 14 of each year as Flag Day and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for its observance. The Congress also requested the President, by joint resolution of June 9, 1966 (80 Stat. 194, 36 U.S.C. 157a), to issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs cis National Flag Week and to call upon

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