Inspired by Charlie Kirk, but not about him. When was the last time US flags were orders to be flown at half staff for a regular person who had no role in the government? Here are the occasions and people to exclude.
No elected or former elected officials, whether federal, state, or local.
No members of the judiciary or military.
No major foreigners who the above might apply to (the Pope, the Queen, etc.).
No mass casualty tragedies or remembrances held on the anniversaries of said tragedies.
No official holidays like Memorial Day.
Who was the most recent person that had the flag lowered as ordered by POTUS who doesn’t fall into any of those categories?
They’re an edge case of what I’m going for, but no, they don’t qualify since an astronaut is being honored for their service to the government for an official government agency.
FWIW, my guess off the top of my head is that we would have to go all the way back to the civil rights era for someone like Martin Luther King Jr.
In the spirit of trying to find an ordinary citizen being honored for their non-government related accomplishments, I’d exclude both of them as well. First Ladies and cabinet officials need not apply. And yes, I’m thinking of just at the federal level. I suspect if we start going down the state level we would start seeing a lot of “home state celebrities” that happen to be especially non-controversial.
ETA: I see the OP doesn’t want to count her. I’m guessing they also don’t want to count the annual commemoration of deceased peace officers and firefighters.
Right. I’m looking for individuals that are being honored as a single individual for their non-government related accomplishments. Rosa Parks counts. So does MLK Jr.
The OP is asked specifically about the president ordering it but I’m reminded of the time that Chris Christie ordered state flags flown at half staff for Whitney Houston. He it was controversial at the time and I still see it brought up from time to time as a criticism. There is a political Mandela Effect with people believing that Obama was the one who ordered them lowered.
Certainly not. All the early astronauts were but there have been many payload specialists that were not pilots or in the military. That’s even if you leave out Christa McAuliffe.
From the Challenger I believe Judith Resnick and Ronald McNair along with McAuliffe were never in the military. They all were on the NASA payroll at the time.
Either way, the lowering of flags in honor of Rosa Parks in 2005 was more recent than the lowering of the flags for the victims of the Challenger disaster.
The Challenger (or Columbia) disaster would also fall under the OP’s exemption of “mass casualty tragedies”. I was thinking folks like Neil Armstrong, who died of old age, well after the event that made him notable.
Armstrong wasn’t a member of the military when was an astronaut. He was the first U.S. civilian in space. He had been in the Navy and flew combat missions in Korea. Up to the OP if that counts against his prohibition of military members.