The Continental Congress approved the Flag Resolution establishing the first U.S. flag design on June 14, 1777.
The resolution specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a blue union containing thirteen white stars. The stripes and stars represented the thirteen United States, which had declared independence from Britain the previous year.
The resolution did not name a designer and did not establish the modern flag’s later arrangement of fifty stars. As new states joined the Union, Congress added stars and, for a time, stripes. The number of stripes was fixed at thirteen in 1818, while the star count continued to change.
June 14 is observed as Flag Day in the United States. Betsy Ross is traditionally associated with making an early flag, but the surviving historical evidence does not establish that she designed the flag specified by the 1777 resolution.