Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Tomorrow Is Flag Day-- Part 2: 13 Stripes and 13 Stars

The flag went from having 13 stars, representing the 13 colonies  to the 50 stars for the states we have today.  Most of the states are located between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but today it also stretches across the Pacific to Hawaii and northward to Alaska.

Hawaii is the 50th and last state to join the Union.  It was a state when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941.  back then, the U.S. flag had 48 stars as Alaska was also not a state.

The Flag Resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress on June 4, 1777, said:  "Resolved, that the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

Legend has it that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, designed and sewed the first flag.  Some sources say she was a friend of the Washington family.

--RedWhiteBlueDaCoot

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