America's Story: Our Country's Flag (1989)

I'm [Music] fly Along on eagles's wings as I tell you America's story hello I'm up in s Eagle but you can call me US Eagle for short we American Eagles are the national birds of the United States this America story is about our country's [Music] flag welcome to the capital Washington DC here's where I have my the United States Hall of History I tell stories up here stories about our country the United States of America today my story is about our country's flag this flag right here which by the way flies every day in this Hall with me is my assistant the brain omatic computer hied Chief I know everything about America I am programmed with historical information pictures and sounds that's the Liberty Bell hold on brain omatic you make a lot of things happen around here but are you the Storyteller well no you are chief so dim the lights brainy and let's begin there is quite a history to our flag the Apollo missions our flag is the first flag of Any Nation to be put on the moon put there by American astronauts back down to Earth the flag flies every day in front of schools just like yours we call it a symbol of America our flag reminds us of how proud We Are of our country we give our flag special nicknames to show how much we like it stars and stripes red white and blue Old Glory The Star Spangled Banner You're a Grand Old Flag you're a high fly and flag and forever in peace may you hold on hold on romatic you're getting ahead of yourself sorry Chief I just love that flag well at least he's patriotic lots of us feel that way about our Flag 13 red and white stripes and up in the corner a field of blue with 50 white stars have you ever wondered where this flag came from was it given to us did we order it out of a catalog to find out exactly how we got our flag let's start with our video glow one moment please brainy we want to see a map of the United States of America here we are 50 States including Alaska and Hawaii now let's take our map back in time to 1770 before we had a flag of our own one moment please in a blink of my Eagle Eye we've arrived at the 13 English colonies of 1770 we're interested in that flag in front of the building it is red white and blue like our flag I'll make it bigger Chief we can see it better thank you brainy this is the flag of England the Union Jack hello Jack hello old Jack good to be here because the 13 colonies belonged to England Union Jack Flew Over the colonies it was a symbol of England and the colonists the people who lived in the colonies had to obey English laws but in 1775 the colonists got angry with England ask them why Chief okay say colonists why are you angry England's laws make us pay taxes for our tools and books and even our tea but the king of England won't let us have any say in making these laws so we won't obey these laws H those colonists all sound like you brainy let's see what the king of England has to say about this they WOTE to be my laws these colonists are revolting send by Navy and my Army and he did Union Jack flew on English Navy ships as they sailed into the colonist Harbors England's Army landed and fought battles with Americans like this one in the streets of Boston of course you know This Means War right you are brainy the Revolutionary War so there was Union Jack in front of the English Army and the colonist well they had no flag there wasn't even one Army each colony had its own small army and each Army had its own flag flags with trees on them and with snakes on them don't tread on me to win the war the colonist needed to form one large army with one flag it was this man's responsibility General George Washington Washington believed strongly that one flag would help all the colonist the small armies with their many flags become one large army presenting the Grand Union Flag 13 red and white stripes one stripe for every Colony up in the corner is our old friend Union Jack Jack you're back kind of you to notice with this flag Washington led the war for independence against England a lot of men were killed fighting the Revolutionary War chief chief sounds like a battle going on right here in the US Hall of History let's take a look brainy hey wait that's no battle those are fireworks like the Fourth of July my favorite holiday we know another name for it Independence Day July 4th 1776 on that day the colonists declared they had to separate completely from England that's the day they signed the Declaration of Independence now they was no place on the flag for the Union Jack so long Jack back to England with you H to fill the space they put 13 stars on a field of blue each star stood for each colony and so the flag stood for the 13 colonies united into one country the first flag of the United States of America became official on June 14th 1777 Flag Day Old Glory was a symbol of the Liberty the colonists were willing to fight for we have just begun to fight freedom is Insight yay everyone helped to sew flags for our country during the war the most famous flag maker was Betsy Rock from Philadelphia of course we all know who won the war and the flag was there with them yes Briny maybe they don't know who won the war oh you're right the colonist one Old Glory now officially represented a country the United States of America and was soon to represent a new government the government we have today here is the Constitution of the United States with its Bill of Rights I have them on display here in the hall the Constitution and the Bill of Rights form the building blocks that make the government of our nation guaranteeing liberty and justice for all the laws in the Constitution make our kind of government a Republic and the flag stands for this Republic and the ideas and laws that make America a great nation of course right after the Revolutionary War Old Glory still only had 13 stars at first no one planned on how the flag would grow with our country so every time a new state joined the United States they added one star and one strike this flag with the 15 stars and 15 Stripes was the flag that flew when we went to war again with England in 1812 Francis Scott Key wrote a poem during a battle of this war called The Star Spangled Banner it was about our flag Americans loved the words he wrote it made them feel proud of our country the poem was sung to a familiar tune and one day many years later the song became our national anthem The Star Spangled as the country grew Westward Americans decided our flag should not have more than 13 stripes but it would always have a star for every state how many stars now brainy 34 stars mean 34 states the date is 1861 the Civil War another flag appeared in America in the Civil War 11 of the 34 states didn't want to be part of our country anymore so they formed their own country and made their own flag this divided the United States in two President Abraham Lincoln Lincoln was President then he said that the United States was indivisible it could not be divided in two four terrible years of war were fought but the United States was held together Lincoln was right the nation was indivisible and it was now free to grow people came here from all over the world more States join the union how many do we have today 50 states 50 states make 50 stars the United States of America and this is our flag today it's been with us through a lot of history it has gone with our explorers and scientists our soldiers and leaders our athletes and has stayed right here at home with us in the United States of America it is our flag and to show how we feel about our country's flag we say the Pledge of Allegiance it's a serious promise when we say the Pledge we promise to be loyal to our country and do everything we can to keep and not to harm our freedom I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] [Applause] [Music] la e