Robert G. Heft designed the 50-star U.S. flag as a high-school student in 1958.
Heft created the design for a class project while Alaska and Hawaii were being considered for statehood. His proposal arranged 50 stars in alternating horizontal rows, a pattern that could be adapted as states were added. He received a B-minus for the project, but his teacher promised to reconsider the grade if Congress adopted the design.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected Heft’s arrangement from more than 1,500 submissions. The 50-star flag officially became the national flag on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state.
Betsy Ross is popularly associated with an early American flag, but historians have found no conclusive evidence that she designed the first Stars and Stripes. Francis Hopkinson is credited with helping design the original flag, while the modern 50-star arrangement belongs to the later statehood era.