The 15th of June 2019 marked the 800th anniversary of the battle of Lyndanisse, where the Danish flag Dannebrog fell from the heavens as a sign from God…. Or so the legend goes.
In his edition of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum from 1514 chronicler Christiern Pedersen wrote that the Danes were losing the battle of Lyndanisse against the heathen Estonians on 15th of June 1219, and that Bishop Sunesen, who had joined the king on the crusade, prayed for a sign from God. Suddenly the red and white flag fell from the heavens and gave the Danes the bravery to storm forward.
The Danes won the battle, and since then the Dannebrog has been the official flag of Denmark.
In fact, it holds the world record of being the oldest continuously used national flag in the world! In Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, a memorial sculpture in the Danish Garden commemorates the spot where it is believed the flag fell from the sky. The flag of Denmark (Danish: Dannebrog, pronounced [ˈtænəˌpʁoːˀ] is red with a white Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side.
More on the Danish flag can be found here: Visit Tallinn and MOFA Denmark.