June 14, 1777 – Flag Day – On this date the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes as the national flag of the new country.  The resolution reads:  “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”  Tradition has it that the first such flag was created by seamstress Betsy Ross at the request of George Washington;  historians debate the validity of this legend.

June 14, 1940 – German forces enter Paris, beginning an occupation that will last until the city’s liberation in August 1944.  The city was admistered by Nazi Germany and the puppet Vichy Regime.  German Wehrmacht troops, SS and Gestapo exercised little to no restraint in their treatment of the French people during this period.  The “City of Lights” suffers a dim four years in the shadow of the Swastica which is visible at every turn, even hanging from the center of the Arc de Triomphe.