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Show Many Historical 'Firsts' Fall on New Year's Day Among the events of historic significance sig-nificance which have taken place on January 1, one of the most beloved to Americans occurred in 1776. It was then that Gen. George Washington raised over his camp at Cambridge, Mass., a flag which, although al-though it had the Union Jack in the canton, had the 13 alternate red and white stripes, representing the 13 colonies. This flag was referred to in the correspondence of the day as the "American colors," and may safely be regarded as the first Amer- j ican flag. Since the 13 colonies represented rep-resented in the 13 stripes, although fighting for their rights, had not yet broken entirely away from the mother moth-er country, the British Union Jack was retained to show their connection connec-tion with England. Six months later, lat-er, however, the ties which bound them were severed by the Declaration Declara-tion of Independence, and then the need for a new banner resulted in the doing away with the Union Jack. Then came the historic resolution of June 14, 1777, the stars were placed in the canton and the flag of the United States became the Stars and Stripes. The War of 1812 saw another important im-portant event taking place on New Year's day. For it was on January 1, 1815, that the British made their first attack on New Orleans, and a week later occurred the decisive engagement engage-ment in which "Old Hickory" Jackson Jack-son so decisively defeated Paken-ham's- veterans. On January 1, 1822, the first American Amer-ican settlers arrived in Texas, an event which forecast the struggle for a second war of independence in North America and the addition of the Great Southwest to the United States. On January 1, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist, published the first issue of the Liberator. |