You see the American flag every day, but how much do you know about it's origins? Find out here how our star-spangled banner came to be.
About our flag
Several flag designs with 13 stripes were used in 1776 and 1777, until Congress established the official flag on June 14, 1777 - now observed as Flag Day. The act stated "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." Washington explained it this way: "We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."
The flag was first carried in battle at Brandywine, Pa., in September 1777. It first flew over foreign territory in early 1778, at Nassau, Bahama Islands, where Americans captured a fort from the British. The name "Old Glory" was given to the flag on August 10, 1831, by a sea captain, William Driver.
Betsy Ross Sews First Official Flag
After Vermont and Kentucky became states in the 1790s, Congress approved adding two more stars and two more stripes to the group that represented the original 13 colonies, now states. This was the "Star Spangled Banner" of which Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814. As other states entered the Union, it became obvious that stripes could not be added continually, so in 1818 Congress reestablished the 13-stripe flag and allowed for additional stars for new states.
1818 Law Sets Final Form
The regulated design calls for seven red and six white stripes, with the red stripes at top and bottom. The union of navy blue fills the upper left quarter from the top to the lower edge of the fourth red stripe. The stars have one point up and are in nine horizontal rows. The odd-numbered rows have six stars. The even-numbered rows have five stars, centered diagonally between the stars in the longer rows.
The reason the flag is folded into a triangular shape is to symbolize the shape of the cocked hats worn by soldiers of the American Revolution.
The first time the Stars and Stripes flew in a Flag Day celebration was in Hartford, Conn., in 1861, the first summer of the Civil War. Numerous patriotic groups supported a regular nationwide observance. In the late 1800s, schools held Flag Day programs to contribute to the Americanization of immigrant children, and the observance caught on with individual communities. But it was not until 1916 that the president proclamed a nationwide observance and not until 1949 that Congress voted for Flag Day to be a permanent holiday. It is not a "legal" holiday, however, except in Pennsylvania.