The Continental Congress adopted the first official United States flag with stars on June 14, 1777.
The Flag Resolution called for thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars on a blue field. The stars represented the thirteen states, described in the resolution as a “new constellation.” June 14 is now observed annually as Flag Day.
The flag resolution did not specify the exact arrangement of the stars, their number of points, or every manufacturing detail. Early flags therefore appeared in several patterns, including circles, rows, and other arrangements. The famous Betsy Ross story is traditional, but historians have found no conclusive proof that she sewed the first flag.
The design changed as new states entered the Union. Congress temporarily increased both stars and stripes to fifteen in 1795, but later returned the stripes to thirteen. Today’s flag has fifty stars and thirteen stripes.