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American flag

The Grand Union Flag was used by George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. It closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the same era that was used from 1707.

It is generally considered as the first national USA flag, although it never had any official status, so the United States had no official national flag at the time of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

The Grand Union Flag

On June 14 1777, the Marine Committee passed a Resolution stating that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, and that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field.

The 1777 resolution was probably meant to define a naval ensign rather than a national flag. It did not specify any particular arrangement for the stars. The so-called "Betsy Ross flag", with 13 stars arranged in a circle, is among the oldest U.S. flags, but many other variants coexisted.

In 1795, the number of stars and stripes was increased from 13 to 15 to reflect the admission of Vermont and Kentucky in the union. For a time the flag was not changed when subsequent states were admitted, probably to avoid clutter.

The Betsy Ross Flag

On April 4 1818, the US Congress decided that the flag would have 13 stripes (one per original state) and 20 stars, one per member state, with a new star to be added for each new state admitted. The act specified that new flag designs should become official on the July 4 following the admission of new states.

The most recent change, from 49 stars to 50, occurred on July 4 1960 after Hawaii gained statehood in August 1959.

The current USA flag