The first official United States flag had 13 stars.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Flag Resolution on June 14, 1777. It specified thirteen white stars in a blue field, representing a new constellation, along with thirteen alternating red and white stripes. The thirteen symbols represented the original states.
The resolution did not prescribe a precise arrangement for the stars, so early flags used several patterns, including circles and rows. The familiar Betsy Ross story, which credits Ross with sewing the first flag, is not established by contemporary documentary evidence. Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey delegate, is the only person with a documented claim connected to the flag's design, though even that claim concerns the broader design process.
As new states joined the Union, Congress added stars and sometimes stripes. The 1818 law fixed the number of stripes at thirteen and required one star for each state. The current flag has fifty stars, reflecting the admission of Hawaii in 1959.