Washington, DC - The calendar will tell you that the U.S. celebrates Flag Day on June 14th but many people do not know why. The reason: on that day in 1777, John Adams, who later became America’s second president, introduced a resolution in Congress that stated, in part, “the flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen starts, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.

For more information, read John Adams: Independence Forever by Janet Benge and Geoff Benge. This is as a good way as any to inform kids about one of America’s early heroes, according to the Grateful American Book Prize.