History
Legend states that a red cloth with the white cross simply fell from the sky in the middle of the 13-century Battle of Valdemar, after which the Danes were victorious. As a badge of Divine right, Denmark flew its cross in the other Scandinavian countries it ruled and when Iceland became independent, they incorporated the Christian symbol.
The civil flag of Iceland had been used as an unofficial symbol since 1913. It was officially adopted on 19 June 1915, to represent Iceland, and has been in use at sea since 1 December 1918, when Iceland became a separate Kingdom the family of Scandinavian countries. Other symbolic meanings refer to the natural features of Iceland itself. Blue is the colour of the Icelandic mountains, white represents the snow and ice covering the island for most of the year, and red the volcanoes on the island.
Read more about this topic: Flag Of Iceland
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)
“To summarize the contentions of this paper then. Firstly, the phrase ‘the meaning of a word’ is a spurious phrase. Secondly and consequently, a re-examination is needed of phrases like the two which I discuss, ‘being a part of the meaning of’ and ‘having the same meaning.’ On these matters, dogmatists require prodding: although history indeed suggests that it may sometimes be better to let sleeping dogmatists lie.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)