What 1777 congressional resolution established the thirteen-stripe design of the United States flag?

The Flag Resolution of 1777 established the thirteen-stripe design of the United States flag.

The Second Continental Congress adopted the resolution on June 14, 1777. It specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a blue field containing thirteen white stars, representing the thirteen original states. The resolution did not prescribe the exact arrangement of the stars.

The wording was brief and left important design details unsettled. Congress later changed the flag as new states entered the Union, adding stars and sometimes adjusting their arrangement while retaining thirteen stripes for the original states.

Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the 1777 resolution, although it is not a federal public holiday. The popular story that Betsy Ross designed the first flag is not firmly established by contemporary evidence. The resolution itself, rather than that later tradition, is the documented legal foundation of the early national flag.