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New Jersey: liberty, prosperity and the third state New Jersey became the third state to ratify the United States Constitution on December 18, 1787. That date gives the Garden State its place in the familiar state-birthday calendar. Yet the year shown on its flag is 1776, not 1787. The difference is not a mistake: one date marks revolutionary statehood, while the other marks ratification of the federal Constitution. This is a useful starting point for a history that often gets squeezed between t …

Pennsylvania: the Keystone State and the making of a nation Pennsylvania celebrates its place in the Union on December 12. On that date in 1787, it became the second state to ratify the United States Constitution. Philadelphia had hosted the convention that produced the document; now Pennsylvania accepted the new framework of national government. That makes its birthday a constitutional milestone rather than the creation of a territory from previously ungoverned land. The commonwealth’s hi …

Delaware: the First State, a much longer story December 7, 1787 is the date printed on Delaware’s flag. It commemorates a decisive act of self-government: Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. That distinction deserves celebration, but it is not the beginning of Delaware’s history. Indigenous communities, competing European empires, farms, ports, slavery, religious communities and revolutionary arguments all shaped the place before the thirty deleg …

Bunker Hill Flag History: The Pine Tree, the Cross and the Fight for Liberty The blue Bunker Hill flag is a compact picture of a complicated beginning. A white upper corner holds a red cross and a green pine tree, combining English heritage with a distinctly New England identity. Its name calls to mind June 17, 1775, when colonial soldiers confronted British regulars on the heights of Charlestown. Yet the flag's story should begin with an important distinction: a design remembered in connection …

Montana became the 41st state on November 8, 1889. Its birthday marks an important American achievement: a territory gaining statehood, representation, and responsibility for its own constitutional government. But Montana's story began long before that proclamation, and it did not stop when the ink dried. Native homelands, gold camps, cattle ranches, copper mines, family farms, military service, and debates over individual liberty all belong in that story. So do difficult questions about broken …