The United States flag has 13 horizontal stripes, alternating red and white.
The stripes represent the thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain and became the original states. Congress specified this basic arrangement in the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777, which called for thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field.
The number of stripes was temporarily increased to fifteen in 1795 when Vermont and Kentucky joined the Union. That 15-star, 15-stripe flag remained in use until Congress adopted a plan in 1818 to return the stripes to thirteen while adding a star for each new state.
This arrangement explains why the modern flag can display fifty stars but only thirteen stripes. Flag Day, observed on June 14, commemorates the 1777 congressional resolution. America250 highlights the way the flag combines the country’s founding colonies with its later growth.