Congress passed the Flag Act of 1777 on June 14, 1777, establishing the first official United States flag design.
The act specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field. It did not prescribe a particular arrangement for the stars, which allowed early flags to appear in several patterns, including a circle.
June 14 is now observed in the United States as Flag Day. The law came less than a year after the Declaration of Independence and gave the new nation a standardized national symbol during the Revolutionary War.
The flag is often linked to Philadelphia upholsterer Betsy Ross, but the story that she designed the first flag is a later tradition rather than a claim firmly documented by surviving contemporary records. The act itself names no designer.