The Flag Resolution of 1777 specified 13 white stars for the original United States flag.
The Second Continental Congress adopted the resolution on June 14, 1777. It described a flag with thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a blue union containing thirteen white stars, representing the thirteen United States. The resolution did not specify the stars’ arrangement, number of points, or exact orientation.
The thirteen stars corresponded to the thirteen colonies that declared independence and became the first states. As new states joined the Union, later flag laws added stars and, for a time, added stripes as well. The 1795 flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes, but the 1818 Flag Act restored the number of stripes to 13 and established the practice of adding only stars for new states.
The popular story that Betsy Ross designed the first American flag is not supported by contemporary documentary evidence. Historians agree that the flag evolved through the work of multiple people, and the 1777 resolution itself did not identify a designer.