06/14/2026
Happy Birthday to the American flag!
On this day in 1777, Congress adopted a resolution establishing an official flag of the United States: “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.”
Interestingly, Congress did not require that the stars be displayed on the flag in any particular pattern, so that the arrangement of the stars on the flag was left to the flag makers’ discretion. An early and popular version of the flag arranged the stars in a circle, to represent the equality of the states. Not until 1912, pursuant to an Executive Order of President Taft, was an official arrangement of the stars designated.
In 1794 two stripes and two stars were added to the flag, in recognition of the newly added states of Vermont and Kentucky. In 1818 Congress enacted a law requiring that the number of stars on the flag equal the number of states but returning the number of stripes to thirteen.
President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916, recognizing June 14 as “Flag Day,” as did President Calvin Coolidge in 1927. Not until 1949, however, did Congress pass a law officially establishing Flag Day as a national observance.
So, Happy Birthday to the Stars and Stripes and Happy Flag Day!
The image is “The Birth of Old Glory” by Percy Moran.
