For America250’s history of U.S. symbols, Congress adopted the first official American flag on June 14, 1777.
The Continental Congress’s Flag Resolution specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field. It described the stars as representing “a new constellation.” The resolution did not prescribe the stars’ exact arrangement.
June 14 is now observed annually in the United States as Flag Day. The first official flag followed the Continental Union Flag, which had combined thirteen stripes with the British Union flag in its canton.
The familiar Betsy Ross design is often treated as the original flag, but historians cannot establish that Ross designed the first official flag. The 1777 resolution allowed several arrangements of the stars.