Continental Congress Adopts the Stars and Stripes (1777)
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." With those 29 words, Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. The date is commemorated each year as Flag Day. The precise origin of the design — and the role of seamstress Betsy Ross — has been debated by historians ever since.
The Need for a Flag
By June 1777, the United States had been at war with Britain for two years and had been an independent nation for almost exactly one year. A national flag was both a practical military necessity and a symbol of the new nation's identity. The Continental Army had used various flags since the beginning of the war, including the Grand Union Flag — which retained the British Union Jack in its canton — and numerous regimental standards. Washington's forces needed a flag that clearly identified American ships and forces as distinct from the British. The resolution adopted on June 14 specified stripes and stars but left considerable details unresolved: it did not specify the arrangement of the stars (whether in a circle, rows, or some other pattern), the exact proportions of the flag, or who was to make it. The resolution was also not the highest priority of the Congress — it was sandwiched between resolutions about military appointments and largely unremarked in the press at the time.
Did You Know?
The story that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag was not publicly told until 1870 — nearly a century after the alleged event — when her grandson William Canby presented it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Historians have found no documentary evidence from 1776–77 to corroborate the story, and several details are inconsistent with the historical record. The designer of the flag may have been Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress who submitted a bill to the Board of Admiralty in 1780 claiming credit for designing several government seals and the flag — a claim that was disputed at the time.
The Flag Evolves
The Stars and Stripes was not static. When Vermont and Kentucky joined the Union, Congress passed the Flag Act of 1794, adding two stars and two stripes — bringing the total to 15 stars and 15 stripes. It was this 15-stripe flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the British bombardment in 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner." But as it became clear that adding a stripe for every new state would make the flag unwieldy, Congress passed the Flag Act of 1818, returning to the original 13 stripes and providing that a new star would be added for each new state on the Fourth of July following its admission. The 50-star flag — representing all 50 states — has been in use since July 4, 1960, following Hawaii's admission to the Union in 1959. It is the longest-serving version of the flag in American history.
Flag Day
Flag Day — June 14 — was first proposed in 1885 by a Wisconsin schoolteacher named Bernard Cigrand, who had his students observe the anniversary of the 1777 resolution. The observance spread gradually; President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it a national day of observance in 1916. Congress designated June 14 as Flag Day in 1949, though it has never been made a federal holiday. Flag Day is celebrated with parades, the display of flags, and ceremonies across the country, particularly in Quincy, Massachusetts, and Fairfield, Washington — both of which claim the title of "Birthplace of Flag Day." The American flag today appears on more merchandise, more public buildings, and more lapels than virtually any other national symbol in the world — an emblem so ubiquitous that debates about its meaning and the obligations it symbolizes remain as contested as ever.