Who is Betsy Ross, and did she sew the first American flag?

This week, Nike is halting distribution of a new sneaker featuring the "Betsy Ross" American flag, which features 13 stars in a circle for the original 13 states.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the decision came after former NFL player and activist Colin Kaepernick complained that the flag was a throwback to an era when prominent Americans held slaves.

As the most famous seamstress in American history comes back around for another 15 minutes of fame, it's worth dusting off a history book to see what's behind the flag that was sewn into the new line of shoes.

ou may have learned in elementary school that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag at the request of Gen. George Washington.

In an interview with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Marc Leepson, author of "Flag: An American Biography," argued that the story is more fable than fact.

"Every historical study has come to the same conclusion," he said. "There's no good historical evidence that she did. But that doesn't mean she didn't. There's simply a lack of documentation. Most historians believe the story is apocryphal."

On what would become Flag Day, June 14, 1777, Congress passed a law calling for single American flag to replace the various standards flying at the time. "Resolved. That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternating red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

The Betsy Ross flag may just be a tall tale

But according to Ross family legend, it was a year earlier when the Founding Fathers walked into Ross' home, where she sat sewing. Nearly a century later, Ross' grandson William Canby published the first known written account of the original flag in a paper entitled "The History of the Flag of the United States."

His story depicts Washington and his men stating that they're members of a committee of Congress and that they had been appointed to create a flag.

According to Canby, they asked his grandmother whether she could make one, and Ross told Washington that "she did not know but she could try; she had never made one but if the pattern were shown to her she had not doubt of her ability to do it."

According to the story, Ross went back and forth with Washington and his men on design ideas before agreeing on a final look.

Canby's written version of the Ross family history picked up attention and was essentially the mainstream view with the publication of the book "The Evolution of the American Flag" in 1909, according to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Historians agree, however, that Ross later sewed American flags for the Pennsylvania navy, Leepson says.

And regardless of whether the story of the very first flag is true, it's an endearing one, and it endures.

BREAKING Bigg Boss 11 Friday Ka Faisla: These Three Contestants LOCKED Up In Jail!

Bigg Boss 11 will take the first biggest twist of the season. Yes, Bigg Boss will announce ‘Friday Ka Faisla’ in tonight’s episode, which means every Friday, one or more than one contestant will be put inside the jail.  To people who have not noticed yet, this time, the jail has been built underground to make it more frightening. The jail has no amenities other than three string cots and water.

In the coming episode of Bigg Boss 11, finally, the special jail will be inaugurated and will get its first inmates. Any guesses who are the first prisoners of the season? We EXCLUSIVELY reveal, not one but three contestants have been locked inside the jail and the huge decision has been taken by ‘Padosi’.

Yes, as ‘padosi’ are the winner of the first luxury budget task, they were given authority to put three contestants inside the jail as the worst performers of the week.

Three contestants- Zubair Khan, Akash Dadlani and Shilpa Shinde have been put behind the bars.  The unlucky three will have to spend a considerable time in the jail, until the time Bigg Boss or Salman Khan decides to relieve them.

Now let’s wait and watch, how housemates react to this decision of ‘Padosi’. What do you think? Share your views in the comments section below.

‘संध्या बिंदणी’ की बहन है ये ग्लैमरस गर्ल, टीवी नहीं फिल्मों में बना रही है करियर..

“जीवनसाथी हम, दिया और बाती हम…।” इस गाने की तर्ज पर बना सीरियल ‘दिया और बाती हम’ टीवी जगत के पॉपुलर सीरियल्स में से एक है। इस बात में कोई शक नहीं कि शो को सक्सेसफुल बनाने में उनके मुख्य किरदारों ने भी महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई है। खासतौर पर शो के लीड कैरेक्टर सूरज और संध्या का नाम तो इस लिस्ट में सबसे ऊपर आता है।

शो में संध्या का किरदार टीवी एक्ट्रेस दीपिका सिंह ने निभाया था। ये दीपिका का पहला टीवी शो था, लेकिन अपनी खूबसूरती और बेहतरीन एक्टिंग के दम पर उन्होंने साबित कर दिया कि वो किसी से कम नहीं है। अपनी बहन दीपिका के नक्शे कदम पर चलते हुए उनकी छोटी बहन भी एक्टिंग की दुनिया में आ गई है। और तो और वो टीवी में नहीं बल्कि फिल्मों में अपना करियर बनाने की कोशिश कर रही है।

जी हां। वैसे आप भी इन तस्वीरों को देखने के बाद कहेंगे कि इस सुंदरी का फैसला गलत भी नहीं है।
‘दिया और बाती हम’ फेम के नाम से चर्चित एक्ट्रेस दीपिका सिंह पिछले दिनों अपनी प्रेग्नेंसी को लेकर सुर्खियों में थीं। हैरानी की बात यह है कि अधिकांश दर्शक तो आज भी उन्हें संध्या के नाम से ही जानते हैं जबकि यह उनके किरदार का नाम था।
5 साल तक चला शो

This cunning actor has said that Hindus are terrorists and are using muscle power!!! Will he provide any proof for this lunatic statement?

The communal actor who is not less cunning than Arvind Kejriwal does it again. At a time when Islamic terrorism has stunned the world with its barbaric terror acts, Kamal Haasan has found terrorists in Hindus.

“Terror has spread into their camp as well. One cannot say there is no Hindu terror anymore”

Yes, this is the bizarre statement given out by the cunning actor who will soon be a politician. Can we award him any of the major international awards for calling Hindus as terrorists?

Kamal Haasan further said that right wing organisations cannot say that there Hindu are not terrorists as there are terrorists even in them. But, this liar named Kamal Haasan doesn’t have guts to condemn the terror attack on Amarnath Yatris in Jammu and Kashmir. Why can’t he attack the religion of those terrorists?

Kamal says ‘Right wing organisations use Muscle Power’!!! Why is he acting like a lunatic?

Kamal further said that Hindu right wing groups were earlier not indulging violence but now, they are using their muscle power and are indulging in violence. But let me ask him, who killed 59 karsevaks in Godhra? Who are killing Hindu workers in Kerala? Can he speak on the atrocities against Hindus in the state of West Bengal?

Mr Haasan, who calls himself as an atheist, has said Kerala is a perfect example where social justice is ensured. He further targeted Hindu outfits and said “Truth alone triumphs has now become strength alone triumphs. This has made people inhuman“. But he cunningly tried out to utter a single word against the inhuman Pinarayi Vijayan and his gang of barbarics.

“If he has such an inclination, he should report it to the authorities. There is no Hindu terrorist organisation. Kamal Haasan is a morally corrupt person, he can do anything at any time; he cannot be taken seriously. The NIA should visit him and ask him if he has any proof”. This is how Dr Subramanian Swamy mocked at the cunning actor cum politician.

This kind of statements filled with pure lies was speculated by the political analysts because recently he had visited Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan (the man responsible for the killing of RSS and BJP workers).

New York Attack Stokes Familiar Terror Fears

Confirmation the suspect in the New York City terror attack came to the United States from Uzbekistan is reigniting concerns about the ability of terrorist groups to weaponize immigrants and refugees after they cross into the West.

U.S. and European counterterror officials caution there is no “straight line” from immigrant or refugee to terrorist, but they worry groups like Islamic State (IS) have been growing ever more adept at manipulating some of the more vulnerable members of those populations.

So far, the case of 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, who came to the U.S. in 2010 and was a permanent, legal resident, appears to be following that narrative.

“He was radicalized domestically,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN Tuesday.

“It’s not the first time,” Cuomo said, adding, “It’s a global phenomenon now.”

And while court records show Saipov had some traffic violations, until now he had done little to get the attention of law enforcement officials.

“Saipov has never been the subject of an NYPD intelligence bureau investigation, nor has he been the subject of an FBI investigation,” said John Miller, New York deputy police commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism.

‘Some connectivity’

Still, investigators believe Saipov came into contact with potentially dangerous people.

“It appears he will have some connectivity to individuals who were the subjects of investigations, though he himself was not,” Miller said.

Officials say once that happened, it would not necessarily have taken long for Saipov to have become radicalized.

U.S. and European counterterror officials say recruiters, both online and in-person, have become so adept that they can sometimes turn potential recruits in a matter of days.

“The process is very individualized,” a U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA. “There’s not necessarily one key.”

And while increasingly the so-called “flash-to-bang” ratio, the amount of time between when a terrorist decides to attack and then acts, has grown shorter, officials say waiting weeks to launch an attack, as Saipov apparently did, would not be unusual.

​The Islamic State terror group has been especially opportunistic, using a combination of online expertise and a well-honed personal touch to seemingly “strike at will,” according to some counterterrorism officials.

Investigators believe, at the very least, the group managed to inspire Saipov.

“He did this is the name of ISIS,” NYPD’s Miller said, using an acronym for the terror group, and citing a note handwritten in Arabic.

“The gist of the note was the Islamic State would endure forever,” Miller said.

​Key catchphrases

Experts say the importance of that message cannot be overlooked.

“It’s a key kind of catchphrase used by the organization in multiple regards,” Bennett Clifford, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said.

“You’ve seen it especially more as their territory crumbles in Syria and Iraq,” Clifford said. “This idea that they will stay and remain or endure in this instance is a common kind of theme of ISIS propaganda as well as the message that’s shared by their supporters worldwide.”

Tuesday’s attack also closely follows the IS playbook for vehicular attacks as laid out in its online magazine, Rumiyah, and other social media outlets, officials say.

Still, there are reasons to question whether Saipov was weaponized by IS operatives, or whether the group’s online propaganda simply helped him along.

“The level of sophistication of the attack suggests an independent actor or a networked actor rather than one directed by an external operations coordinator in IS-controlled territory,” Jade Parker, a senior research associate at the Terror Asymmetrics Project (TAPSTRI), said.

Nor has Islamic State issued any formal claim of responsibility, though officials and analysts say that is not unusual in cases in which the attacker survives.

In the meantime, though, Islamic State supporters have played up the attack on the group’s key social media sites, producing posters and other unofficial propaganda.

And there are concerns the surge in propaganda may make it easier the next time Islamic State tries to get a follower or potential follower to take action.

“These celebrations also show Islamic State supporters who may be thinking about executing attacks that their efforts are appreciated by the group, even if it does not issue an official claim for their attacks,” said Michael S. Smith II, a terrorism analyst who specializes in the influence operations of IS and al-Qaida.

Sardar Patel united India but you’ll be shocked to know how Nehru insulted Sardar Patel’s daughter

Unknown events and anecdotes from Jawaharlal Nehru’s life just keep coming out. Historians have successfully kept Nehru’s many blunders outside the scope of public knowledge, and the Congress party – for understandable reasons – has always portrayed Nehru as a visionary of modern India and a man who did utmost justice to his position. Sadly, the reality is just the opposite.

Here’s recalling another one of Nehru’s tales of apathy bordering on hatred. This anecdote is from Verghese Kurien’s memoirs ‘I Too Had A Dream ’.

Maniben Patel, Sardar Patel’s daughter, was a woman of tremendous honesty and loyalty. She told me that when Sardar Patel passed way, she picked up a book and a bag that belonged to him and went to meet Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi. She handed them to Nehru, telling him that her father had instructed her that when he died she should give these items to Nehru and no one else. The bag contained Rs 35 Lakh that belonged to the Congress Party and the book was the party’s book of accounts.Nehru took them and thanked her. Maniben waited expectantly, hoping he would say something more, but he did not, so she got up and left.

I asked her what she had expected Nehru to say to her. “I thought he might ask me how I would manage now, or atleast ask if there was anything he could do to help me. But he never asked,” she explained. She was extremely disheartened and in a way the incident revealed the strain in the Nehru-Sardar Patel relationship. It was quite distressing to see that neither Nehru nor any of the other national leaders of the Congress ever bothered to find out what happened to Maniben after her father died.

“After all the sacrifices that Sardar Patel made for the nation, it was very sad that the nation did nothing for his daughter. In her later years, when her eyesight weakened, she would walk unaided down the streets of Ahmedabad, often stumble and fall until some passerby helped her up. When she was dying, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Chimanbhai Patel, came to her bedside with a photographer. He stood behind her bed and instructed him to take a picture. The photograph was published in all the newspapers the next day. With a little effort, they could so easily have made her last years comfortable.”

If any Congress leader claims that the party respects Sardar Patel, then he or she is lying through the teeth. Congress leaders and workers have and will remain subservient to only one family, the Gandhis. And in the process to glorify this corrupt and power-hungry family, they will go to any extent, one obviously being belittling other stalwarts of Indian history.

केंद्र सरकार का नया फरमान..सुहागरात मनाने के लिये जरूरी होगा आधार कार्ड!

आए दिन अपने अजीबोगरीब फैसले लेने के लिए मशहूर वर्तमान की NDA सरकार ने आज देश पर एक नया नियम थोप दिया है।इस नियम के मुताबिक अब एक शादीशुदा जोड़े को सुहाहरात मनाने के लिए आधार कार्ड रखना जरुरी होगा।

सूचना एवं प्रसारण मंत्रालय के प्रवक्ता ने आज नयी दिल्ली में एक प्रेस कॉन्फ्रेंस को संबोधित करते हुए ये जानकारी दी।उन्होंने जानकारी देते हुए कहा कि अब सुहागरात मनाने के लिए आपके पास आधार कार्ड का होना एकदम जरुरी है,अन्यथा आपकी सुहागरात केंसल कर दी जायेगी।

सरकारी प्रवक्ता के अनुसार जल्द ही सरकार एक ऐसी टीम भी बनायेगी जो हर गली मोहल्ले में होने वाली शादियों पर नज़र रखेगी। साथ ही दूल्हा और दुल्हन के आधार कार्ड की जांच भी करेगी और उसके बाद ही उन्हें सुहागरात मनाने की ऑफिसियल परमिशन दी जायेगी।सरकारी प्रवक्ता ने बताया कि ऐसा कदम इसलिए उठाया गया है ताकि जन जन को आधार कार्ड की अहमियत महसूस हो और वो आधार कार्ड से जुड़े।ताकि देश डिजिटल इंडिया की ओर अग्रसर हो।

जहां एक ओर भाजपा समर्थको व नेताओ ने इसे देशहित में उठाया हुआ कदम बताया है वही विपक्षी पार्टी ने इसे हिटलरशाही कहते हुए इसकी कड़ी निंदा की है।