The United States flag associated with America250 celebrations has 13 stripes.
The stripes alternate red and white and represent the thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The flag’s blue canton contains stars representing the states in the Union, so the stripes and stars carry different historical meanings. The current flag has 50 stars but retains the original 13 stripes.
The Continental Congress adopted the first official national flag design on June 14, 1777. That resolution specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field. It did not identify a single designer, despite the persistent popular story that Betsy Ross created the entire flag.
As new states joined the Union, stars were added. The number of stripes briefly increased to 15 after Vermont and Kentucky joined, but Congress returned the design to 13 stripes in 1818. The present 50-star version became official on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii entered the Union.