Thirteen stars appeared on the first U.S. national flag under the 1777 Flag Resolution, relevant to America250.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Flag Resolution on June 14, 1777. It specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a blue field containing thirteen white stars, representing the thirteen states. The resolution did not specify a precise star arrangement, so early flags used varying designs.
The familiar stars-and-stripes design evolved as new states joined the Union. Congress added stars for new states while retaining thirteen stripes, because adding another stripe for every state would eventually have made the flag impractical. The present flag has fifty stars and thirteen stripes.
The Betsy Ross story is widely associated with the first flag, but historians have not established that Ross designed the flag. The 1777 resolution itself named no designer. America250 therefore offers a useful occasion to separate the documented congressional specification from later patriotic traditions.