It all started with Christopher Columbus. October 12, 1492, ten weeks after sailing out of Palos, Spain, one of the sailors on board the Pinta sighted land. Columbus and those on his three ships (the other two were the Nina and the Santa Maria) had arrived in the new world.

Of course, their first sight of land was an island in the Bahamas, there were already millions of people living in what Europeans soon called the Americas, and Vikings, and possibly other Europeans, had come to North America to fish in earlier years.

But history books credit Columbus and his crews for being the first arrivals. The first official Columbus Day celebration took place in 1892, when President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in North America. (Columbus Day, now designated as the second Monday in October, has been celebrated as a federal holiday since 1971.)

But this article is be about the Pledge of Allegiance. On October 12, 1892, as part of that first Columbus Day celebration, Francis Bellamy, circulation manager of The Youth’s Companion, a popular magazine for children, wrote a few patriotic words for children to say on Columbus Day, published them in the September 8, 1892 issue of the Companion, and sent them to public schools across the country. On Columbus Day, as part of the nation’s celebration, more than 12 million children recited,

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” in their classrooms. 

The Pledge of Allegiance had been created. 

On Flag Day (June 14) of 1923 those gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first National Flag Conference, concerned that the large number of new immigrants to the United States might not understand the Pledge as it was being said, revised it to read,

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.”

In 1924 the name of the country in the Pledge was modified to read “United States of America.”   

In 1942 Congress officially recognized the Pledge. Also, in June of 1942, the Supreme Court ruled that school children could not be forced to recite it. Today only about half of the states have laws encouraging its recitation in the classroom.

In June of 1954 the Pledge of Allegiance was amended to add the words “under God” – and addition seen by some as constitutionally controversial.

On October 12, 2001, after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, President George Bush, his wife Laura, and Education Secretary Rod Paige  celebrated Columbus Day by once again saying the Pledge of Allegiance with school children throughout the United States.  Millions of students from elementary and secondary schools took part in what is thought to be the largest synchronized recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in United States history.

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