Fly your flag today! July 4, 2012

Fourth of July: NPR has already read the Declaration of Independence, PBS is ready to broadcast the Capitol Fourth concert  (maybe a rebroadcast is available, if you’re off at your own town’s fireworks — check your local listings), your town has a parade somewhere this weekend, or a neighboring community does, and fireworks are everywhere.

Remember to put your flag up today.

Last flag on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and the U.S. Flag — Apollo 17 on the Moon (NASA photo)

Also:

• “Fireworks in Washington, D.C.” (from 2009)
• Another post from 2009 – linked for the photo
• Our current 50-star flag is the longest-flying flag since 1789; since Hawaii’s entry into the Union, the U.S. has gone the longest stretch without adding a state (is it time to add one?)
• Fun quizzes on the Fourth of July, from PBS’s “Capitol Fourth.”
• Advice on photographing fireworks, from PBS (with experience on the Mall in Washington, D.C.), and from Ritz Camera and the New York Institute of Photography
• One more way we know the Moon landings were real — the photo below shows the flag from the photo above, still on the Moon.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of Apollo 17 landing site

• Fourth of July trivia: Fun facts about flags, food and fireworks (mercurynews.com)
• Happy Fourth Of July! Celebrate With 75 ‘Firework’ Songs (huffingtonpost.com)
• Y! Big Story: Lesser known truths about Fourth of July (givemeliberty01.wordpress.com)
• Fireworks TV schedule: July 4, 2012 — when, where to watch (examiner.com)
• AP PHOTOS: Americans celebrate the Fourth of July (sfgate.com)
• Josh Turner plays PBS’s ‘A Capitol Fourth’ special (blogs.tennessean.com)

This is mostly an encore post, but I so love that photo of the flag with the Earth in the distance.

Happy birthday, Kathryn!

Tip of the old scrub brush to Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and the cast of thousands of patriots including George Washington.