The first official U.S. flag design contained 13 stars under the 1777 Flag Resolution.
The thirteen stars represented the thirteen United States that had declared independence from Great Britain. Congress paired them with thirteen alternating red and white stripes. The resolution described the stars as white and placed them in a blue field.
The original resolution did not specify how the stars should be arranged. Flag makers therefore produced several patterns, including circles, rows, and other layouts. The circular arrangement is strongly associated with the Betsy Ross tradition, but historians have not established that Ross designed or sewed the first official flag.
Later U.S. flags added stars as new states entered the Union. The number of stripes, however, was eventually fixed at thirteen to preserve the connection with the original states. The current flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes.