There have been twenty-seven official versions of the flag thus far – with stars added to it as states entered the Union. The current flag dates to July 4, 1960, when Hawaii became the 50th state.
Today is Flag Day, the result of a 1916 presidential proclamation from Woodrow Wilson. Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States.
According to American legend, in June 1776 George Washington commissioned Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, to create a flag for a new nation in anticipation of the coming declaration of our independence.
On June 14, 1777, John Adams at a meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia said, “Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
