The national flag of Estonia features three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white. It first came to prominence as the flag for the Estonian University Student Association at Tartu University and was consecrated on June 4, 1884. It subsequently became associated with Estonian nationalism and was used as the national flag when Estonia became independent on February 24, 1918, formally adopting the flag on November 21, 1918.
The invasion by the Soviet Union in June 1940 led to the flag being banned and it remained hidden until the days of perestroika in the late 1980s when on February 24, 1989 the blue-black-white flag was again flown from the Pikk Hermann[?] tower in Tallinn. It was readopted as the national flag on August 7, 1990, shortly before Estonia regained its full independence.