On June 14, 1777, a small group of men in Philadelphia called the Second Continental Congress passed a quick, four-line resolution. "Resolved," they wrote, "that the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." There were no fireworks, no parades. The young country was deep in the Revolutionary War. But that little vote gave the new nation its very first official flag.
Nobody knows for sure who sewed the first one. The famous story about a Philadelphia seamstress named Betsy Ross stitching it on her lap was told by her grandson almost a hundred years later. What we do know is that the design changed as the country grew. When Vermont and Kentucky joined, the flag briefly had 15 stripes - that's the one Francis Scott Key was looking at when he wrote The Star-Spangled Banner in 1814. Congress later decided to keep 13 stripes for the original colonies and just add one star for each new state. Today there are 50 stars, last updated in 1960 when Hawaii joined.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson made June 14 official Flag Day, and in 1949 President Harry Truman signed it into national law. Every year on this day, schools, fire stations, and town halls fly the Stars and Stripes a little prouder. The flag has flown over a Civil War, two World Wars, on the Moon, and on the shoulders of Olympic athletes. Not bad for a four-line resolution scribbled in a hot Philadelphia summer.
