1777, June 14: An act of Congress creates the first flag of the United States of America
1880, January 07: Representative Barber introduces in the House of Representatives a bill that would "protect the national flag from desecration." Barber's bill would outlaw imprinting, stamping, or otherwise affixing words or designs on either an actual flag or any representation of a flag for the purpose of "advertisement of merchandise or other property, or of any person's trade, occupation, or business." The bill went nowhere.
1890, September 29: The House of Representatives passes a bill introduced by Representative Caldwell of Cincinnati. It states that "any person or persons who shall use the National flag, either by printing, painting, or affixing on said flag, or otherwise attaching to the same, any advertisements for public display or private gain shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in the District Court of the United States shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars, or imprisonment not less than thirty days, or both, at the discretion of the court." This bill would fail to pass the Senate.
1892, September 08: An early version of "The Pledge of Allegiance" appeared in "The Youth's Companion," a periodical for children: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all." Author Francis Bellamy, a socialist editor and clergyman, was attempting to give words to the views of his cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of various socialist utopian novels.
1896, October 31: Mark Hanna, campaign manager for presidential candidate William McKinley, declares a special Flag Day for this date in order to connect the cause of patriotism with the economic and political agenda of the Republican Party. Hanna was inspired by the popularity of McKinley's speeches where he emphasizes the GOP's devotion to America and the American flag.
1899, August 04: F.L. Rossbach, manager of the Washington Shirt Company located in Chicago, is charged with violating a law against using the American flag in advertisements. Rossbach insists that his use of an image of the flag is not only not disrespectful, but is in fact lawful because he had registered his company's trademark - which included the flag - in 1898. The judge dismisses the case and challenges defenders of anti-desecration laws: "Wherein is the flag desecrated by making a lithograph or a picture thereof as a trade-mark? If the common use of the flag is to abate veneration of it, why did our solons pass a law making it compulsory upon those in charge to fly the national emblem from the flagstaff of every school house."
1900, July 19: New York City police chief William S. Devey announces that "all American flags, whether of cotton, silk, printed, painted, illuminated in electric lights, or of any other kind which contain anything in the way of an inscription or advertisement will be hauled down by the police department." Barber shop poles were exempted, though.
1903, April 08: The state of Nebraska passes a law named "An Act to Prevent and Punish the Desecration of the Flag of the United States." This law made it a crime for people to "sell, expose for sale, or have in possession for sale, any article of merchandise upon which shall have been printed or placed, for purposes of advertisement, a representation of the flag of the United States." The law would be challenged a couple of years later in the Supreme Court case Halter v. Nebraska, where the Court ruled that states do have the authority to ban desecration of the American flag.
1907, January 23: The Supreme Court hears arguments in the case of Halter v. Nebraska. Contemporary efforts to "protect" the American flag from "desecration" focus on burning the flag in political protests, but the earliest laws designed to protect the flag focused on something very different: use of the flag to sell merchandise commercially.
1907, March 04: The Supreme Court rules 8-1 in the case of Halter v. Nebraska that states have the authority to ban desecration of the American flag, including bans on use of the flag in commercial advertisements. Such bans remain on the books in many states, though few people seem to be aware of this.
1918, February 12: Frederick Shumaker, Jr. is tried and convicted for reportedly telling someone to make a "very vulgar and indecent use of the flag." Kansas law made it a misdemeanor for anyone to "publicly mutilate, deface, defile, or defy, trample upon, or cast contempt, either by word or act, upon any such flag, standard, color, or ensign [of the United States]..." Shumaker appealed all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court and would lose.
