On this day, June 14

1777 The Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag.

1863 In a Sunday meeting at the Monongahela House, Pittsburgh businessmen and manufacturers, fearing a raid by the Confederate cavalry forces of J.E.B. Stuart, decided to suspend business and set up a defense.

1943 The U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled 6-3 that public school students could not be forced to salute the flag of the United States.

1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

1968 Dr. Benjamin Spock and three other peace activists were convicted in Boston of conspiring to encourage young men to evade the draft during the Vietnam War. The verdicts were later overturned by an appeals court.

1993 Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey received a heart-liver transplant at Presbyterian University Hospital in Oakland. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Alyssa Brown Today’s birthdays: Actress Marla Gibbs, 88. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., 80. Rock singer Rod Argent (The Zombies, Argent), 74. President Donald Trump, 73. Singer Janet Lennon (The Lennon Sisters), 73. Olympic gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden, 61. Jazz musician Marcus Miller,

60. Singer Boy George, 58. Actress Yasmine Bleeth, 51. Actor Faizon Love, 51. International Tennis Hall of Famer Steffi Graf,

50. Actor J.R. Martinez, 36. Pop singer Jesy Nelson (Little Mix),

28. Country singer Joel Crouse, 27. Actor Daryl Sabara, 27. Thought for today: “The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history.”

— President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), in an address delivered on June 14, 1915