The Continental Congress adopted the original thirteen-star American flag design on June 14, 1777.
The Flag Resolution specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field. The stars represented a new constellation, while the stripes represented the thirteen United States. The resolution did not name a single designer or prescribe the stars' exact arrangement.
June 14 is now observed as Flag Day in the United States. The flag resolution came almost a year after the Declaration of Independence, so the first official stars-and-stripes design was not yet the national flag when independence was declared in 1776.
The early flag tradition is more complicated than the familiar Betsy Ross story suggests. Historians have found no contemporary evidence proving that Ross designed or sewed the first flag. Early makers used several star arrangements, including circles, rows, and other patterns.