Happy Pledge of Allegiance Day, and it is the 70th one too, with Congress formally recognizing Pledge of Allegiance Day for the first time on Dec. 28, 1945. The Pledge of Allegiance was published anonymously and not copyrighted in a magazine for young people called Youth's Companion. It was written in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Authorship of the Pledge of Allegiance is still a controversy 123 years after it was penned. Some say Francis Bellamy, the chairman of the committee who worked on the magazine that published the pledge, had written it. Others believe James Upham was the author, according to the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Upham worked for the publishing firm that produced he magazine.
The text of the original pledge was tweaked and modified slightly in 1923 and 1924 into the pledge that we all know today. While the latest trend is to ban the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, we all grew up reciting this pledge at the beginning of classes each and every day. In fact, this tradition dates back to a Columbus Day celebration the year the pledge was penned, meaning school kids have recited this pledge, this affirmation of values and freedom, since October of 1892.
The biggest words of contention in the pledge seem to be "under God," which surprisingly wasn't in the original pledge, says National Day Calendar. It was added by Congress on June 14, 1954 "in response to the anti-Communist opinion sweeping the country during the Cold War," according to National Day Calendar.
In May, actor Chris Pratt posted a video of he and his 2-year-old son Jack, as daddy Chris taught Jack the Pledge of Allegiance, according to ABC News. See the video below:
The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance 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.
