June (Meitheamh) 14^th

(In celebration of Flag Day)
1777 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the Stars and Stripes, created by Betsy Ross, as the national flag. America's Flag Day, commemorates the date when John Adams spoke the following words before the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. "Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation." Over the years, there have been 27 versions of the American flag. The present version was adopted on July 4, 1960, when Hawaii became the 50th state.

1846 - William L. Todd, nephew of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln designed a flag for the Bear Flag Revolt with the words California Republic. With rusty nails and blackberry juice he painted a grizzly and a star on white cloth. The lower red border was said to come from the flannel petticoat of Nancy (nee Roberts) Kelsey, who sewed the flag. The Bear Flag Revolt got its name from the presence of a grizzly bear on the standard proposed for the independent California.

1877 - the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

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1645 - The royalists, loyal to Charles I, suffer a key defeat by the English Parliamentarians at Naseby

1690 - William of Orange lands at Carrickfergus

1699 - The second session of the second Irish parliament of William III is dissolved on this date

1798 - Government reinforcements begin to march from Cork and the midlands; Rebels send small detachment to Mountpleasant, in Co Wicklow. In Ulster, the Rebels disperse

1866 - Charles Wood, composer, is born in Armagh. For most of his adult life, he lives in England, but preserves a lively interest in Ireland; in 1904 he co-founds the Irish Folk Song Society in London. Several of his chamber works and songs use Irish material. However, he is mainly remembered as a fine composer for the church and together with Charles V. Stanford is the most often played composer in the Church of England. This is reflected in his discography, which mainly concentrates on his liturgical music and does not quite represent his real work list, in which his eight string quartets stand out

1881 - Player piano patented by John McTammany, Jr, Cambridge, Mass

1883- Death of Edward FitzGerald, poet and translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

1884 - Birth in Athlone of John McCormack, tenor and papal count

1906 - Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist, was born.

1919 - Pilot John William Alcock (1892-1919) and navigator Arthur Witten Brown (1886-1948) took off from St. John’s, Newfoundland  in a Vickers Vimy, for Clifden, Ireland, on the first nonstop transatlantic flight. The flight lasted 16 hours and 28 minutes and carried the first transatlantic airmail. They won a 10 thousand pound prize, first offered by the Daily Mail in 1913.

1928 - Birth of Ernesto (Che) Guevara, Latin American revolutionary

1961 - Birth of Boy George O'Dowd androgynous rock musician & druggie (Culture Club)

1974 - The first Soviet Ambassador to Ireland, Anatoli Kaplan, presents his credentials

1995 - Untimely death of Donegal-born blues guitarist and singer/songwriter Rory Gallagher. He dies at age 47 following complications after receiving a liver transplant

2000 - The Orange Order’s policy making body votes overwhelmingly not to enter into dialogue with the Parades Commission

2000 - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presents Irish troops with their official pennant just hours before their departure for United Nations duty in troubled East Timor

2001 - The controversial pro-abortion Dutch ship, the Aurora, docks in Dublin. Although the trawler is equipped to carry out abortions, the purpose of its visit to Ireland is to fuel debate on the need for Irish legislation to provide women with choice

2003 - Living up to its costly reputation, Dublin is named in the worldwide cost of living survey for 2003 as the third most expensive capital city in the EU. Only London and Copenhagen are more expensive.

Feast Days:

Translation of the Relics of St. Brendan the Navigator,
Abbot and Founder of Clonfert, Ireland, Who Sailed to America

St. Cearan the Devout, Abbot of Bellach-Duin,
County Meath, Ireland (Ciaran)

Died 870. Cearan was an Irish abbot of Bellach-Duin (Castle- Keerant), County Meath (Benedictines).

St. Nennus, Abbot of the Isle of Arran, Scotland

(also known as Nenus, Nehemias)

7th century. Nennus, born into the O'Birn family, succeeded Saint Enda as abbot of the monasteries of the Arran and Bute isles in 654
(Benedictines, Encyclopaedia, Husenbeth).

St. Psalmodius, Hermit of Limoges, France, Disciple of Saint Brendan

(also known as Psalmet, Sauman, Saumay)

Died c. 690; second feast on August 6. Psalmodius, of Irish or Scottish descent, became a disciple of Saint Brendan. About 630, he took Brendan's advice and migrated to France where he lived as a hermit in the forest of Grie near Limoges. In France, he placed himself under the direction of Bishop Saint Leontius of Saintes, who helped him progress still further in Christian virtue. His relics are kept in a silver shrine in the collegiate church of Saint Agapotus in Languedoc (Benedictines, Husenbeth).