The Second Continental Congress adopted the first U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, during the Revolutionary era celebrated by America250.
Congress passed the Flag Resolution while the Revolutionary War was underway. It specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a union of white stars on a blue field. The resolution did not prescribe the exact arrangement of the stars, allowing later designs to vary.
The thirteen stripes represented the original colonies, while the stars represented a new constellation of states. As additional states joined the Union, the number of stars increased. In 1795, Congress approved a fifteen-star, fifteen-stripe flag after Vermont and Kentucky joined, but the stripes returned to thirteen in 1818.
Flag Day is observed annually on June 14 in recognition of the 1777 resolution. The Betsy Ross story is widely associated with the flag’s origins, but historians have not established that Ross designed the first official flag.