The United States flag has 13 stripes, whose Revolutionary meaning features in America250.
The thirteen alternating red and white stripes represent the thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The Continental Congress specified this basic arrangement in the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777.
The flag also has a blue canton containing stars. The stars represent the states in the Union, while the stripes preserve the memory of the original thirteen colonies. This distinction explains why the current flag has 50 stars but only 13 stripes.
The number of stripes was temporarily increased to 15 in 1795 when Vermont and Kentucky joined the Union. Congress returned the design to 13 stripes in 1818 and established the practice of adding stars for new states while retaining the original stripes.