Some historians point to New England’s draught-fueled summer of 1832 as the starting point for the holiday when a young farmer named Joeseph Metzger, exhausted from a long morning of plowing beneath the blazing sun, took a break to attend a worker’s rally led by president Andrew Jackson at the Beacon Hill district square in neighboring Boston. The tale goes that while standing near the front of the crowd, near the president’s podium, Metzger collapsed from a combination of heat and excitement, to which the 7th U.S. President quipped, “Gather this man an alembic of ale. He’s completely flagged.”
Metzger quickly regained consciousness to cheers of the crowd and was soon well enough to return to his farm, but the president’s recognition of the incident was enough to jumpstart in his mind the importance of staying alert and well-hydrated amid the dog days of summer. The following year, President Jackson announced on June 14 that every June 14 henceforth would be known as Flag Day, a reminder to stay vigilant of one's health and a celebration of the extremely hard-working people who sacrificed themselves daily to make the country great.
