This was about the midpoint of the 1936 Summer Olympics, which are most remembered today for Black American track star Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in Berlin, at a Summer Games hosted by Nazi Germany.
This was also the year of the first Olympic torch rally and the first time the Olympics were featured on television, at least on a small scale.
And it was the first time two countries showed up flying identical flags.
One of the countries was Liechtenstein, a tiny principality between Switzerland and Austria in central Europe, not far from Germany.
Their delegation came with a relatively new flag based on the official colors of the 18th Century Prince Joseph Wenzel.
On top, it had a blue horizontal stripe representing the sky.
Below that, a red horizontal stripe paying tribute to the fires people lit in their fireplaces each night.
But when their six athletes came to the Olympic stadium, they saw their colors were already flying.
It wasn’t a rogue band of Liechtensteiners pranking everybody.
It was the delegation from Haiti, which included just one athlete (who ended up withdrawing due to injury).
The Haitians were flying a version of their flag, which had a blue horizontal stripe on top and a red horizontal stripe below that.
Haiti had once based its flag on the red, white and blue flag of France, but after its revolution against the French, it took out the white stripe.
Neither country had apparently known that the other’s flag looked just like theirs.
A member of Liechtenstein’s team reportedly called home to figure out what to do.
To differentiate the two countries’ flags, Liechtenstein added a gold crown to the upper left corner of its flag, to represent its prince.
Haiti would eventually add a coat of arms to the center of its flag, and (hopefully) nobody would ever confuse the two flags again.
Starting today in Indiana, it’s the Oakland City Sweet Corn Festival.
Of course there will be lots of corn for sale, and a kids’ corn eating contest.
But they’re also going to choose a new Little Miss Cornflower and Mr. Popcorn.
flag of Liechtenstein (Britannica)
flag of Haiti (Britannica)
Oakland City Sweet Corn Festival
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Image by arz via Wikicommons
