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The end of a holiday or display season is a good time to check a flag before putting it away. A few organized steps now make it easier to find the right flag, identify a repair need and avoid discovering a damp bundle when the next occasion arrives. This is a routine-care checklist for everyday display flags. An antique, a fragile textile or a flag with important historical or personal significance deserves specialist advice before cleaning or treatment. Start with the maker's instructions Check …

A replacement flag should fit the display you already own, not just look right in a product photograph. Two flags with the same design and dimensions can attach differently. Before ordering, take a close look at the edge nearest the pole and the hardware that holds it. This checklist is for choosing a replacement, not modifying a flagpole. Keep the instructions for your particular pole or mounting kit in charge of the final setup. 1. Identify the attachment you have Grommets are reinforced metal …

Washington, D.C. is not a state, and it has no admission date the way the fifty states do. Its founding traces instead to July 16, 1790, when President George Washington signed the Residence Act, authorizing a permanent federal capital on the Potomac River. Establishing the District The Constitution, ratified the year before, called for a federal district under the exclusive control of Congress, separate from any state. The Residence Act put that into practice: Maryland and Virginia ceded land a …

California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850, admitted directly as a free state under the Compromise of 1850, without ever passing through territorial status — one of the few states in the country to skip that step entirely. The admission came just four years after the Bear Flag Revolt, the short-lived 1846 uprising in Sonoma that first raised the flag California still flies today. From Bear Flag to Statehood In June 1846, a group of American settlers in Mexican California, distru …

Texas became the 28th state on December 29, 1845, admitted directly from an independent republic, without ever passing through territorial status — the same unusual path California would take five years later. Texas is one of only two states that were sovereign nations before joining the Union. From Republic to Annexation Texas declared independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836, and won it that April at the Battle of San Jacinto. For nearly a decade afterward it governed itself as the Repu …