Five Things You Might Not Know About the U.S. Flag-- Part 3: One of the First U.S. Flags Had the Union Jack of Britain in It

Raised during the American Revolution, the first American flag featured, strangely enough, the Union Jack of Great Britain.

The Continental Colors consisted of 13 horizontal stripes of red and white, to which a canton (the square in the upper left corner in case you're wondering) depicting the British flag.

During the Siege of Boston, General George Washington raised this flag on January 1, 1776.

Its design is a reminder that the Revolution's original goal was not independence from Britain but the restoration of the colonists' liberties under British law.

On June 14, 1777, almost a year after the Declaration of Independence, Congress replaced the British flag with 13 white stars on a blue field, representing the United States as "a new constellation" in the heavens, alongside older nations and empires.

--DaCoot