127 Fun Facts About Patriotic

Which mission planted the first American flag on the Moon?

Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could barely work the pole into the hard lunar soil, and Aldrin reported seeing the flag blown over by the engine blast when they lifted off.

The 50-star US flag was adopted in 1960 after which state joined the Union?

Hawaii became the 50th state in August 1959, only months after the 49th, so the 49-star flag was official for just one year before the 50-star design replaced it in 1960.

Which president ordered the 50-star flag on August 21, 1959?

Dwight Eisenhower had approved a 49-star flag only that January; his second order of 1959 set fifty stars in nine staggered rows, and the new flag became official the following year.

In 1795 the flag grew to 15 stars and 15 stripes for Kentucky and which New England state?

Vermont and Kentucky were the first states added after independence, and each got a star and a stripe; it is the only US flag with more than 13 stripes, because in 1818 Congress went back to 13 and added only stars.

Sea captain William Driver gave his ship's flag which nickname, now used for every US flag?

Old Glory: when Tennessee seceded, Driver had the flag sewn inside a bed coverlet to hide it, then carried it to the state capitol when Union troops took Nashville in 1862.

Who spread the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first Stars and Stripes from George Washington's sketch?

Her descendants spread the tale: grandson William Canby first told it to a Philadelphia historical society in 1870, nearly a century after the event, and no record from the time supports it.

Under the Flag Code, must a flag that touches the ground be destroyed?

No, that is a myth: the Flag Code says only that the flag should not touch the ground; burning is its preferred way to retire a flag too worn to be a fitting emblem.

The US Flag Code became public law in which year?

The Flag Code became Public Law 77-623 on June 22, 1942, codifying guidelines from the 1923 National Flag Conference; it discourages using the flag in advertising or on cushions and handkerchiefs.

Which president designated June 14 as Flag Day by proclamation in 1916?

Woodrow Wilson's proclamation of May 30, 1916 only 'suggested and requested' that communities mark June 14 with patriotic exercises; it created no legal holiday.

Which state was the first to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?

Pennsylvania was the first state to make June 14, Flag Day, a legal state holiday, doing so in 1937, two decades after the 1916 presidential proclamation.

What was the profession of Francis Scott Key, who boarded a British ship to negotiate a prisoner's release?

Lawyer: Key had sailed out to win the release of Dr William Beanes, a physician friend seized by the British, and was kept offshore until the attack on Baltimore was over.

Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry during which war?

The War of 1812: British warships bombarded Fort McHenry for about 25 hours on September 13-14, 1814, and Key, held on a truce ship in the harbor, saw the flag at dawn.

The tune of the national anthem was borrowed from a song written for a gentlemen's club in which city?

London's Anacreontic Society, a club of amateur musicians, sang John Stafford Smith's tune as its club song; Key knew it well, having already set an 1805 song for naval heroes to the same melody.

Which president signed the 1931 law that gave the United States an official national anthem?

Herbert Hoover signed the act in March 1931, after a campaign begun in 1918 by Ella Holloway, head of a Maryland patriotic society, and bills that Maryland congressman J. Charles Linthicum kept reintroducing.

The anthem's ballpark tradition is traced to a World Series during which war?

World War I: at Game 1 of the 1918 World Series a Navy band struck up the anthem during the seventh-inning stretch, and Red Sox infielder Fred Thomas, on furlough from the Navy, turned to the flag and saluted.

Which singer performed the wrong lyrics to the anthem before Super Bowl XLV in 2011?

Christina Aguilera, singing at Super Bowl XLV in February 2011, replaced the 'O'er the ramparts we watched' line with a mangled repeat of the second line, 'What so proudly we hailed.'

Where has the huge Fort McHenry flag that inspired the national anthem been kept since 1964?

The National Museum of American History has shown it since opening in 1964; the flag is about eight feet shorter than when it flew, because its owners snipped off pieces as souvenirs and gifts.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 to mark an anniversary of what?

Columbus's arrival in the Americas was the occasion: the magazine behind the pledge was selling flags to schools and tied its drive to the anniversary, hoping every schoolhouse would raise one that day.

Which two words did Congress add to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954?

Under God went in on Flag Day 1954; children had recited the pledge without it for 62 years, and until 1923 it did not even name the country, saying only 'my Flag'.

The straight-arm 'Bellamy' gesture for the Pledge was dropped in World War II because it resembled what?

Americans now place a hand over the heart instead.

Which magazine first published the Pledge of Allegiance in September 1892?

The Youth's Companion, a Boston family magazine, printed Francis Bellamy's pledge in its September 8, 1892 issue as part of its campaign to put a flag in every schoolhouse.

What does the Latin motto 'E pluribus unum' on the Great Seal mean?

'E pluribus unum' means 'Out of many, one': thirteen colonies joined in a single nation. Proposed for the seal in 1776, it served as the unofficial national motto until Congress gave that title to another phrase in 1956.

On the Great Seal, what does the bird hold besides thirteen arrows?

An olive branch: the bird's head is turned toward it and away from the arrows, a sign that the nation prefers peace but stays ready for war.

Both sides of the Great Seal have appeared since 1935 on the back of which banknote?

The $1 bill got the seal after Henry Wallace showed Franklin Roosevelt its little-used reverse in 1934; Roosevelt approved the design only on condition that the two sides swap places.

Which state's 2020 flag had to include 'In God We Trust'?

Mississippi retired the last state flag to carry the Confederate battle emblem in 2020; the law ordering a replacement barred that emblem and required the motto, and voters approved the magnolia design that November.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on US money in 1864 on which coin?

The two-cent piece, a bronze coin first struck in 1864, was the first to carry the motto; a Baptist minister had written to the Treasury in 1861 asking that coins recognise God, and Secretary Salmon P. Chase took up the idea.

Which animal officially became the national bird of the United States by an act of Congress in 2024?

The bald eagle had been on the Great Seal since 1782, but an eagle collector, Preston Cook, found it had never been made official and pushed for the law that was signed in December 2024.

Which Founding Father told his daughter the turkey was 'a much more respectable bird' than the national emblem?

Benjamin Franklin made the crack in a 1784 letter to his daughter, grumbling that the bird in one design looked more like a turkey; he never publicly proposed the turkey as a national symbol.

Which animal became the national mammal of the United States in 2016?

The American bison became the national mammal in May 2016; millions once roamed the continent, but hunting had cut them to a few hundred by the late 1800s before the herds were rebuilt.

What is the national floral emblem of the United States?

The rose became the national floral emblem in 1986, when President Reagan signed the measure into law; Senator Everett Dirksen had campaigned for years to give the honour to the marigold instead.

Who drew the 1917 'I Want You' Uncle Sam poster, using his own face as the model?

James Montgomery Flagg first drew the image for a July 1916 Leslie's Weekly cover, then turned it into the 1917 recruiting poster, modelling it on Alfred Leete's 1914 Lord Kitchener poster.

September 13 is 'Uncle Sam Day' because it is the birthday of which man said to have inspired the character?

Samuel Wilson, born September 13, 1766, packed beef for American troops in Troy, New York; soldiers are said to have joked that the 'U.S.' stamped on his barrels stood for 'Uncle Sam', and Congress recognised him as the namesake in 1961.

The Liberty Bell's 'Proclaim LIBERTY' inscription comes from which Old Testament book of laws?

Leviticus 25:10 supplied the line, a verse about the jubilee held every fiftieth year; speaker Isaac Norris chose it in 1751, possibly to mark 50 years of the colony's 1701 charter of liberties.

Which movement first gave the Liberty Bell its name in the 1830s?

Abolitionists adopted the bell as a symbol, with the name 'Liberty Bell' appearing in anti-slavery publications from 1835; George Lippard's 1847 story invented its link to July 4, 1776.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?

The people of France gave the statue, designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi with an iron framework by Gustave Eiffel; it was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

What is written on the tablet the Statue of Liberty holds in her left hand?

JULY IV MDCCLXXVI is July 4, 1776, the date of American independence; the sculptor once thought of having her hold a broken chain, then put it at her feet, where it lies half-hidden by her robes.

Which newspaper publisher ran a fundraising drive that paid for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal?

Joseph Pulitzer's New York World raised over $100,000 in 1885, most of it in gifts of a dollar or less, by promising to print every donor's name however small the sum.

Which country's agents damaged the Statue of Liberty in the 1916 Black Tom explosion?

Germany's agents blew up munitions bound for its enemies while the United States was still neutral; shrapnel pocked the statue and the blast shattered thousands of windows in Lower Manhattan.

Which four presidents are carved into Mount Rushmore?

Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, Lincoln were chosen to represent the nation's birth, growth, development and preservation, and were carved between 1927 and 1941.

Mount Rushmore was dreamed up in the 1920s to draw tourists to which state?

South Dakota: state historian Doane Robinson wanted giant carvings in the Black Hills simply to pull visitors to his state, and wrote to sculptor Gutzon Borglum, then at work on Georgia's Stone Mountain.

The Washington Monument was the world's tallest structure from 1884 until 1889, when it was overtaken by what?

The Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889 at about 300 metres, overtook the 169-metre Washington Monument; the monument's lower third is a different shade because work stopped for over 20 years.

Which two speeches are inscribed inside the Lincoln Memorial?

The Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural flank the statue; in the inaugural a carver cut an E where the F of 'FUTURE' belonged, and the stray stroke had to be filled in.

Roughly how many words long is the Gettysburg Address?

The Gettysburg Address runs about 270 words in ten sentences and took about two minutes; Edward Everett, who had spoken for two hours, wrote to Lincoln that he wished he had come as near the point.

Which building was set ablaze by British forces in 1814, charring much of its exterior?

The White House was burned on August 24, 1814; before fleeing, Dolley Madison had Gilbert Stuart's portrait of the first president taken from its frame and sent to safety, and the Capitol was torched the same day.

Katharine Lee Bates wrote 'America the Beautiful' after a trip up which mountain?

Pikes Peak: in the summer of 1893 Bates and fellow teachers rode up in a prairie wagon, with mules taking over partway, and the opening lines came to her as she looked out from the top.

Which songwriter revived a shelved 1918 song as a 'peace song' for Kate Smith's 1938 Armistice Day broadcast?

Irving Berlin had cut the song from his 1918 army revue Yip Yip Yaphank; he revised it for Kate Smith's November 1938 broadcast and assigned its royalties to the Boy and Girl Scouts.

Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' in 1940 as a sarcastic response to which Kate Smith radio staple?

Guthrie, tired of hearing Kate Smith sing 'God Bless America' on the radio, wrote his answer in February 1940 and first titled it 'God Blessed America for Me'.

Which John Philip Sousa march became the official National March of the United States in 1987?

'The Stars and Stripes Forever', which Sousa said he composed in his head on Christmas Day 1896 aboard a ship home from Europe, was designated the National March by Congress in 1987.

'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' borrows its melody from which other country's anthem?

The United Kingdom's 'God Save the King' supplied the tune: seminary student Samuel Francis Smith met it in a German songbook that composer Lowell Mason had asked him to translate, and wrote American words instead.

Julia Ward Howe set the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' to the tune of which song?

Howe wrote new words to the camp-meeting tune already used for 'John Brown's Body' after hearing soldiers sing it near Washington in November 1861; The Atlantic Monthly printed her poem in February 1862.

'Yankee Doodle' is the official state song of which state?

Connecticut adopted 'Yankee Doodle' as its state song in 1978; British troops had first sung it to mock the ragged colonials, who then claimed it as their own.

In 'Yankee Doodle', what did 1770s slang mean by a 'macaroni'?

A 'macaroni' was 1770s slang for a fashionable fop who aped extravagant continental style, so the joke is that Yankee Doodle thinks a feather in his cap makes him stylish.

Memorial Day was originally known by what name?

Decoration Day was proclaimed by General John A. Logan for May 30, 1868, as a day to decorate the graves of the Union dead, hence the name; 'Memorial Day' became the official federal name only in 1967.

Veterans Day falls on November 11 because that date marked what?

The armistice ending World War I fighting took effect at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918; the holiday was Armistice Day until 1954, when Congress renamed it to honour veterans of World War II and Korea as well.

What is Presidents' Day's official name at the federal level?

Washington's Birthday is still the holiday's legal federal name; since 1971 it has fallen on the third Monday in February, which can never land on his actual birthday, February 22.

Which day joined Independence Day, Christmas and New Year's in the 1870 federal holiday act?

Thanksgiving Day completed the first four federal holidays, but the 1870 act applied only in Washington, D.C.; federal workers elsewhere were not covered until 1885.

The photograph 'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima' shows Marines on the summit of which mountain?

Mount Suribachi: the picture shows the second flag raised there on February 23, 1945, a larger one sent up that afternoon to replace the small flag planted in the morning.

Who took the famous photograph of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima in February 1945?

Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press took it on February 23, 1945; sculptor Felix de Weldon was so struck by the picture that he began modelling it, and it became the Marine Corps War Memorial.

The Purple Heart descends from the Badge of Military Merit, created in 1782 by whom?

George Washington created the badge, a heart of purple cloth, in 1782; only three awards are confirmed, and it lay forgotten until it was revived as the Purple Heart in 1932, the 200th anniversary of his birth.

The Medal of Honor was created during which war, which still accounts for over 40 per cent of all awards?

The Civil War brought the medal into being in 1861-62, and it was handed out so freely that a 1917 review board struck 911 names from the Army's roll.

The US Constitution was signed at Independence Hall on September 17 of which year?

Thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787, at the close of the Philadelphia convention; that date has been observed as Constitution Day since 2004.

What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution collectively called?

The Bill of Rights was proposed by Congress in September 1789 and ratified on December 15, 1791; North Carolina withheld its ratification of the Constitution until the amendments had been proposed.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia was added to which international list in 1979?

Independence Hall joined the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979, honoured as the building where the nation's two founding documents were debated and adopted.

June 14 is also the official birthday of which branch of the US armed forces?

The Army dates its birthday to June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress voted to raise a Continental Army, so it is exactly two years older than the flag that shares its birthday.

In which state did schoolteacher Bernard J. Cigrand, the 'Father of Flag Day', hold an 1885 observance in Waubeka?

Wisconsin: at Stony Hill School on June 14, 1885, Cigrand had his pupils write essays on what the flag meant to them, and he called the day the flag's birthday.

Bernard Cigrand launched his Flag Day campaign with an 1886 newspaper article in which city?

Chicago: Cigrand had moved there to train as a dentist, and he went on pressing for the holiday for some thirty years while he practised.

Which president signed the 1949 Act of Congress that officially established National Flag Day?

Harry Truman signed the act on August 3, 1949, some 33 years after the first presidential proclamation; even so, Flag Day has never been made a federal holiday.

The Flag Resolution said the thirteen stars in a blue field represented a new what?

The resolution called the thirteen stars 'a new constellation' but said nothing about how to arrange them, so for decades flag makers set them in circles, rows or whatever pattern they liked.

The Gettysburg Address opens 'Four score and seven years ago', pointing back to which event?

The Declaration of Independence: a score is twenty, so 87 years before 1863 is 1776; Lincoln dated the nation from the Declaration and its claim that all men are created equal, not from the Constitution.

Which Declaration signer claimed in his lifetime to have designed the Stars and Stripes, even billing Congress?

Francis Hopkinson billed Congress in 1780, first asking a quarter cask of public wine; the Treasury Board refused, noting he already held a salaried public office and others had consulted on the design.

Under the 1818 Flag Act, a new star becomes official on which date after a state is admitted?

The Flag Act of April 4, 1818 provided that a star for each new state be added on the first July 4 after admission, and fixed the stripes at thirteen after the 15-stripe years.

How were the stars arranged on the 48-star flag of 1912, the first officially specified pattern?

President Taft's Executive Order 1556 of June 24, 1912 set the stars in six rows of eight, the first time the arrangement was specified; earlier civilian flags used whatever patterns makers chose.

When a US flag is ceremonially folded, what shape is the finished bundle?

A triangle: the fold is a military custom rather than a Flag Code rule, and it ends with only the blue field of stars showing.

On Memorial Day, the Flag Code calls for the flag to fly at half-staff only until when?

Noon: the flag is then raised to the top of the staff for the rest of the day; three in the afternoon is a separate custom, the minute of silence Congress set in 2000 as the National Moment of Remembrance.

Which state's laws designate the second Sunday in June, rather than June 14, as its Flag Day holiday?

New York's General Construction Law makes the second Sunday in June its Flag Day; Buffalo schoolteacher Sarah Hinson had led classroom flag exercises in the state from 1891.

Which two former presidents died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, the nation's 50th birthday?

Adams and Jefferson, rivals who had made peace in old age, both died on the Declaration's 50th anniversary; James Monroe followed on July 4 five years later.

Which country's Rebild National Park is said to host the largest July 4 celebrations outside the US?

Denmark's Rebild National Park, near Aalborg, has hosted the Rebild Festival since 1912, organized by the Danish-American Rebild Society as a homecoming for emigrants and their descendants.

Which president, sworn in by his own father by lamplight in 1923, is the only one born on Independence Day?

Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth Notch on July 4, 1872, and took the oath in the same village from his father, a notary public, at 2:47 a.m. after Harding's sudden death.

What did Buzz Aldrin report happening to the Apollo 11 flag as the lunar module lifted off from the Moon?

It was blown over by the blast of the ascent engine, Aldrin reported, so later crews planted their flags farther away from the lunar module.

Why is the bottom third of the Washington Monument a slightly lighter shade than the rest?

Marble from different quarries finished the obelisk: donations ran out in 1854 and building stopped for more than two decades, so the later stone never quite matched the first.

What lies at the feet of the Statue of Liberty, half-hidden by her robes and hard to see from the ground?

A broken chain and shackle lie under her left foot to mark the abolition of slavery; the sculptor first thought of placing the chain in her hand but judged that too divisive.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, where were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution sent for safekeeping?

Fort Knox's bullion depository sheltered both documents beside the nation's gold until September 1944, when their release was ordered after the D-Day landings.

Which Coney Island hot dog restaurant stages a televised eating contest outside its original stand every Fourth of July?

Nathan's Famous long claimed the contest began decades earlier as a duel between immigrants over who was most patriotic, a tale its promoter admitted in 2010 he had fabricated.

At the 1908 Olympics, the American flag bearer broke protocol by refusing to do what as he passed King Edward VII?

Asked to lower it in salute at the royal box, the American bearer kept it upright, and the Flag Code now says the flag is never dipped to any person or thing.

Which former president died on July 4, 1826, unaware that his old rival at Monticello had died hours earlier?

John Adams died on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and his last words reportedly noted that his friend and rival still lived.

Under the US Flag Code, flying the Stars and Stripes upside down is permitted only to indicate what?

Dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property is the code's only exception, though protesters have since borrowed the inverted flag to signal political alarm.

Which Asian country did the United States recognize as independent on July 4, 1946, after decades of colonial rule?

The Philippines kept July 4 as its own Independence Day until 1962, when the holiday moved to June 12, the date of an 1898 declaration of independence from Spain.

Which Continental Congress president signed the Declaration so boldly that his name became slang for a signature?

John Hancock is often said to have signed large so that King George could read it without spectacles, but that story is apocryphal and surfaced only years later.

What did the Continental Congress do on July 2, 1776, two days before it approved the Declaration's final wording?

Congress voted for independence that day by passing the Lee Resolution, which called the colonies free and independent states; July 4 marks only the approval of the text explaining why.

Which metal forms the thin skin of the Statue of Liberty, which weathered from reddish-brown to green?

Copper sheets only 2.4 mm thick were chosen over bronze or stone for their lower cost and weight, and the green verdigris layer now shields the metal from further corrosion.

Which national cemetery across the Potomac from the capital holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

Arlington keeps a sentinel at the tomb around the clock, and the guard changes in an elaborate ceremony every half-hour from April through September.

Which English-born writer anonymously published Common Sense in January 1776, arguing plainly for independence?

Thomas Paine left his name off the pamphlet, which sold widely across the colonies and was read aloud in taverns and meeting places.

Which Virginia orator urged the colony to arm in 1775 with a speech demanding liberty or death?

Patrick Henry's words survive only in a reconstruction printed in 1817, pieced together from elderly listeners' memories, and historians still debate how much of the famous ending is his.

Which state earned the nickname the First State by ratifying the Constitution before any other?

Delaware carries the nickname on its state quarter beside Caesar Rodney on horseback, who rode through a stormy night to Philadelphia to break his delegation's deadlock in 1776.

In the Declaration of Independence, which phrase completes the trio of unalienable rights after life and liberty?

The pursuit of Happiness echoes, and to many scholars deliberately rewrites, John Locke's 1689 argument that government exists to protect life, liberty and estate.

What symbol hovers above the unfinished pyramid on the back of the one-dollar bill and the Great Seal's reverse?

The Eye of Providence is often read as a Masonic sign, yet the only Freemason on the seal's design committees was Benjamin Franklin, whose ideas were not adopted.

The Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis, adopted in 1883 and usually shortened to Semper Fi, translates as what?

Always faithful replaced three earlier mottoes, among them Fortitudine, meaning with courage, and a line shared with Britain's Royal Marines, by sea, by land.

Which Virginia delegate, whose plan was the basis for the convention's debates, is called Father of the Constitution?

James Madison purposely sat up front and missed not a single day, so his private notes remain one of historians' few records of debates held behind shut windows.

Which three words, credited to Gouverneur Morris, open the Preamble to the United States Constitution?

We the People replaced a draft that followed those words with a list of every state, making the people rather than the states the source of the government's legitimacy.

Which state's admission in January 1959 produced a 49-star flag that was official for only a single year?

Alaska's star retired the 48-star flag after 47 years in use, while the 49-star banner that replaced it lasted barely twelve months.

Which poet wrote the sonnet The New Colossus to raise money for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal?

Emma Lazarus gave the poem to a fundraising auction in 1883, but it was cast in bronze and mounted inside the pedestal only in 1903, sixteen years after her death.

Which sculptor of the Statue of Liberty had earlier proposed a giant torch-bearing lighthouse for the Suez Canal?

Frédéric Bartholdi pitched a draped figure holding a torch, to be named Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia, but the canal's backers turned it down over the high cost.

Mount Rushmore is carved into a granite peak the Lakota call Six Grandfathers, in which South Dakota mountain range?

The Black Hills were taken without just compensation, the Supreme Court ruled in 1980, but the Sioux have refused the money awarded and continue to demand the return of the land.

From which Boston steeple were two signal lanterns shown on the night of Paul Revere's ride in April 1775?

Old North Church, built in 1723, is the oldest standing church in Boston, and its tower still holds eight bells cast in 1744, the oldest change-ringing set in North America.

Which young schoolteacher volunteered to spy behind British lines in 1776, only to be captured and hanged?

Nathan Hale was the only volunteer when a spy was called for; no official record was kept of his final speech, so his famous last words rest on second-hand accounts.

At which Virginia town did Lord Cornwallis surrender in October 1781, effectively ending the Revolutionary War?

Yorktown's surrender ceremony on October 19 went ahead without Cornwallis himself, who refused to attend and claimed that he was ill.

Which immigration station beside the Statue of Liberty processed about 12 million arrivals after opening in 1892?

Ellis Island's first arrival was Annie Moore, a teenager from Cork, and its last detainee was a Norwegian seaman arrested for overstaying his shore leave.

Which federal holiday, created in 2021, marks the day in 1865 when the end of slavery was enforced in Texas?

Juneteenth, a blend of June and nineteenth, became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was adopted in 1983.

Which red flower, inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields, is worn around Memorial Day to honor America's war dead?

The poppy was championed by Moina Michael, a Georgia professor who vowed always to wear one in tribute to the poem; the American Legion adopted it as its memorial flower in 1920.

On the Great Seal, as explained to Congress in 1782, which color signifies hardiness and valor?

Red signifies hardiness and valor, white purity and innocence, and blue vigilance, perseverance and justice, but the flag's own colors were given no official meaning when it was adopted.

Which bronze figure by Thomas Crawford has crowned the dome of the United States Capitol since 1863?

The Statue of Freedom wears a helmet because Jefferson Davis, then overseeing the Capitol's construction, ordered the sculptor's liberty cap removed as a symbol of freed slaves.

Which military engineer, wounded at Savannah during the Revolution, drew the 1791 street plan for Washington, D.C.?

Pierre L'Enfant's baroque plan of grand avenues later inspired the layouts of other world capitals, including Brasília, New Delhi and Canberra.

Which Yale undergraduate, then 21, won the blind design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1981?

Maya Lin's black granite wall beat more than 1,400 other entries, and she later said she never would have won had the designs not been submitted by number instead of name.

Which cartoonist popularized Uncle Sam's image and is credited with first drawing the Republican Party as an elephant?

Thomas Nast did not invent Uncle Sam, only spread him, but his 1863 drawing of Santa Claus is generally recognized as the first depiction of the modern figure.

The 1989 Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson ruled that which act of protest is protected by the First Amendment?

Burning the flag outside the 1984 Republican convention in Dallas had earned Gregory Lee Johnson a year's jail sentence before the justices sided with him by five votes to four.

Which name is given to the yellow Revolutionary flag showing a coiled rattlesnake, after the delegate who designed it?

Gadsden, a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress, gave his flag to the first commander of the Continental Navy, who flew it from his flagship's mainmast in 1775.

What did the Continental Colors, America's first national flag, carry in the corner where the stars now sit?

The British Union Jack shared the flag with red and white stripes, a design strikingly similar to the East India Company's flag, which one theory says influenced it.

Which sculptor, first acclaimed for The Minute Man in 1875, designed the seated statue inside the Lincoln Memorial?

Daniel Chester French modeled the seated president, but the carving itself was executed by the Piccirilli Brothers, and he teamed with the memorial's architect on other monuments too.

Under which shared Roman pen name were the 85 Federalist essays published to urge ratification of the Constitution?

Publius honored Publius Valerius, who helped found the Roman republic; other writers in the debate also signed with Roman names such as Brutus and Cato.

Before Congress renamed it in the 1950s, the site of the Statue of Liberty was long known by what name?

Bedloe's Island was one of three Oyster Islands named by Dutch settlers for the vast oyster beds nearby, a major source of food for almost three more centuries.

Which Baltimore flagmaker was commissioned in 1813 to sew a garrison flag big enough for the British to see from afar?

Mary Pickersgill's banner was so large that she had to borrow a neighborhood brewery's malt house to spread it out, and her team finished the job in six weeks.

Children of which religious group won the 1943 Supreme Court ruling that no student can be forced to salute the flag?

Jehovah's Witnesses regarded saluting a flag as idolatry, and their victory overturned a ruling from only three years earlier that had sided with school districts.

Which Philadelphia inn is traditionally regarded as the site of the first Marine Corps recruitment drive in 1775?

Tun Tavern had form as a gathering place: in 1756 Benjamin Franklin gathered recruits there for the colony's militia, almost two decades before the Marines' first drive.

Which surgeon, once arrested as a spy while treating wounded civilians, was the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor?

Mary Edwards Walker saw her name deleted from the honor roll in 1917 along with more than 900 others, and it was restored only in 1977, decades after her death.

Which Maryland delegate, the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, outlived every other signer?

Charles Carroll died at 95, some 56 years after the signing, and was regarded as the wealthiest man in the American colonies when the Revolution began.

Which two local workmen, whose surnames appear on the Liberty Bell, recast it twice after it first cracked?

Pass and Stow judged the bell too brittle and altered the alloy, but their first recast sounded, one hearer said, like two coal scuttles banged together, so they cast it again.

Which Massachusetts woman served 17 months in the Continental ranks disguised as a man named Robert Shirtliff?

Deborah Sampson was found out only in 1783, when a doctor treating her for a fever discovered her secret, and she later petitioned successfully for a soldier's pension.