For more than two hundred years, the Star-Spangled Banner has waved "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave," the proud and sacred symbol of the freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which our country stands. The basic design, with thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original states, and a star for each state of the Union, dates from June 14, 1777, making it among the oldest national flags in existence.
The history of the Stars and Stripes is the history of our nation: it symbolizes not only the ideals, traditions, and free institutions of our Republic, but also the expansion and territorial development of our United States. The thirteen original stars have grown in number to fifty, the union of our fifty states held together by the bond of our national government, while the thirteen stripes preserve the traditions and ideals of the thirteen colonies or original states which so nobly laid the foundations of this great independent nation.

REVOLUTIONARY FLAGS
Before and during the Revolution, there were few colonial or state flags. Regiments and companies flew their own individual flags. A white flag with a green pine tree in the center, and the motto "An Appeal to Heaven," was popular throughout New England, and was used by the Massachusetts State Navy. Rhode Island troops carried a white flag with a blue anchor in the center, surmounted by the word "Hope," and bearing a blue field of thirteen gold stars at its peak. South Carolina's blue flag bore a crescent and the word "Liberty". These two became the inspirations for their respective state flags. Commodore Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, flew a yellow flag with a coiled rattlesnake in the center and the words, "Don't Tread on Me." It was probably first hoisted on the flagship Alfredat Philadelphia in January, 1776.
The Hanover Associators of Pennsylvania flew a red flag with a rifleman in hunting costume in the center above the words, "Liberty or Death." New Hampshire's banner centered a chain of thirteen links and the motto, "We Are One." The only known "flag to April's breeze unfurl'd" at Concord was brought by the Minutemen of Bedford, and showed a silver arm and sword on a crimson background, with the words "Vince Aut Morire" (Conquer or Die). The Philadelphia Light Horse Troop which escorted General Washington to New York in June, 1775, had a flag which centered a knot tied with thirteen cords, and at the peak had a union of thirteen blue and silver stripes. Since each political unit and military outfit chose its own colors, there were many different flags and many variations.

THE CONTINENTAL FLAG OF THE UNITED COLONIES
There was no flag at first for the union of colonies fighting for their rights under the Congress, and Washington used the Pine Tree Flag for his ships in Massachusetts Bay. There is a letter of Washington's saying, "we had hoisted the Union Flag in compliment to the United Colonies" on "the day which gave being to the New Army." That day was January 1, 1776, when the Minutemen and others, previously serving as volunteers or militia, were enlisted as soldiers of the Continental Congress. This, "Great Union Flag" or "Continental Colors" was hoisted to the top of a 76 foot mast on the top of Prospect Hill, Somerville (then part of Charlestown), clearly visible by the British garrison in Boston.
The Continental Colors was the father of the Stars and Stripes, but the reasons for its design are not known. It had the now familiar thirteen stripes of alternating red and white, symbolizing the thirteen colonies. But instead of a field of stars, it carried the Union Flag of Great Britain, for American independence was not yet declared nor desired. (When England and Scotland were joined under the same crown in 1603, the Union Flag, or "Union Jack," was created by superimposing the red cross of St. George for England over the white diagonal cross of St. Andrew for Scotland, on a blue background. In 1801, the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick was added for Ireland). The flag flown by British merchant ships was very familiar to Americans of that day, and still is one of the best known flags on the oceans...the "Red Ensign," a red flag bearing the Union Jack in the upper corner next to the staff.
Perhaps the Continental Colors was intended to be the Red Ensign plus six white stripes across the red portion. There were also other models: the British East India Company, which had recently lost some of its tea in Boston harbor, used a flag identical with the Continental Colors except that the stripes varied from five to fifteen. Possibly the Continental Colors came from the Philadelphia Light Horse regimental banner with thirteen blue and silver stripes, carried by the troop when it escorted Martha Washington to Cambridge in December, 1775.
The Continental Colors was carried by the first American Naval and Marine expedition against the West Indies in the spring of 1776, and was flying over the Battery at New York City when the British arrived that summer. It was flown by Benedict Arnold on his flagship Royal Savageat the battle of Valcour Island on October 11-12.
On November 16, 1776, the Andrea Dorea,Congress ship-of-was flying the Continental Colors, saluted the Dutch fort on the island of St. Eustatius in the West Indies. Captain Israel Robinson presented a copy of the Declaration of Independence to the Governor, who read it carefully and ordered a return of the nine gun salute, thus giving the first international recognition of a United States flag.
An improvised version of this flag was hoisted over Fort Schuyler on August 3, 1777, when the British attacked. Overnight a flag was put together from "different pieces" of clothing of "one and another of the garrison," including a captured British blue camlet cloak belonging to Captain Abraham Swartwout, who presented a bill for the garment.

THE STARS AND STRIPES
It is remarkable how little evidence has survived about the flags actually used during the Revolution. The modern spirit of American national patriotism did not exist then, and the affection of citizens was primarily for their own colonies. A national flag was mainly used at sea or over forts. Anything distinguishable from the British flag would serve the purpose, and it seems that about anything was used. The Congress took no action of the Continental Colors, and did not specify the Stars and Stripes until nearly a year after the Declaration of Independence had made another flag necessary. Even then, the news was not published in a newspaper until the following September, and the Secretary of the Board of War was calling it "the Marine Flag" in a letter to General Washington two years later.
On June 14, 1777, in the midst of routine matters dealing with naval and maritime affairs, the Congress resolved: "That the Flag of the united states be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation." (June 14 has been officially recognized as Flag Day since August 3, 1949).
There is no certain source for the blue field of stars. Perhaps it was the Rhode Island "Hope" flag with thirteen five-pointed stars in rows of three and two. Nor is there any explanation of "a new constellation." Early flags showed several arrangements: a circle, a crescent, in rows. One "Stars and Stripes" probably used in a Revolutionary land battle had an irregular design of stars, as well as blueand red stripes. This flag belonged to the North Carolina militia at Guilford Court House, March 15, 1781. In October, 1778, Commissioners Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were informing European governments "that the flag of the United States consists of thirteen stripes, alternately red, white, and blue," but they did not try to explain the "new constellation," nor did they describe the stripes correctly.
Toward the end of the Revolution, Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and talented judge, who served two years as chairman of the Navy Board and as designer of various seals and issues of paper money for the Congress, applied for compensation for his extra services. His bill included 9 lira for designing and supplying a drawing of "the Flag of the United States," also called "The great Naval Flag of the United States." There is no doubt that this was some form of the Stars and Stripes, but Congress merely resolved on August 31, 1781, "That the report relative to the fancywork of F. Hopkinson ought not to be acted upon."
The stories about Betsy Ross making a flag for Washington and a committee of Congress have no know basis in fact, although the "Flag House" on Arch Street, Philadelphia, is an interesting historical museum. There is a wholly imaginary story of girls in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, making a Stars and Stripes from ballroom dresses for John Paul Jones in July, 1777, which is supposed to have sunk with the Bon Homme Richard. It is known only the Betsy Griscom Ross made some ship flags for Pennsylvania, but Jones does have a genuine association with a version of the Stars and Stripes. He hoisted "the American Stars" for his victory in the Irish Sea over HMS Drakeon April 24, 1778, which is the first known baptism of fire for "Old Glory." On February 14 he had obtained the first international recognition for the Stars and Stripes when the French fleet returned his salute from the Ranger,off Quiberon Bay.
The Army followed the British custom and did not generally fly the National Flag over its troops on the march. Each regiment had its own flag, according to its state insignia or the fancy of its commander, and most famous paintings showing the Stars and Stripes in battle are merely "artists' conceptions." There was much correspondence with the Board of War about supplying "Standards" and "Colours" for the Army, but Washington did not receive anything until March, 1783, when the fighting was over, and it is not known now what that flag looked like. It probably resembled the Standard carried by the one infantry regiment of 1790, a blue banner with an eagle placed upon a sunburst, holding arrows in one talon and the shield of the United States in the other. Above the eagle were scattered thirteen gold stars and beneath was the motto, "E Pluribus Unum."

FIFTEEN STARS AND FIFTEEN STRIPES
With the admission of two more states into the Union, Vermont in 1791 and Kentucky in 1792, an act of Congress, effective May 1, 1795, increased the number of both stars and stripes from thirteen to fifteen. This was our national flag for the next twenty-three years and was carried in three wars for the maintenance of the rights of American citizens...in the suppression of French privateers, 1798-1800...against the pirates of Tripoli, 1801-1805...and against Great Britain, 1812-1815.
Waving triumphantly over Fort McHenry amid the shot and shell raining down from a heavy British bombardment, September 12-13, 1814, this flag of fifteen stars and stripes inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner,America's national anthem.
Francis Scott Key, a young American lawyer, had been detained on board an enemy ship off Baltimore where he had gone to seek the release of a friend held prisoner. Throughout the long night he anxiously watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry, and when morning dawned he saw the Stars and Stripes still proudly flying over the fort. This flag, the original "Star-Spangled Banner," has been repaired by expert needlewomen and is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

RETURN TO THE THIRTEEN STRIPES
As more states were admitted to the Union, it became necessary again to readjust the flag. The original intention had been to add a new stripe and a new star for every new state, but the awkwardness of this soon became evident. "If the Union keeps on increasing at its present rate," said a member of Congress, "you will soon find that the tallest pine in the forests of Maine will not be high enough to serve as a flagstaff."
At the urging of Peter H. Wendover, Representative from New York, who pointed out that flags bearing anything from nine to eighteen stripes were then flying in the city of Washington, Congress on April 4, 1818, enacted:
"That from and after the fourth day of July next, the Flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white...that the Union be twenty stars, white in a blue field. That on the admission of every new State into the Union, one star be added to the Union of the Flag, and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth of July next succeeding such admission."
So, as states came into the Union, the field of stars grew to forty-eight. They were arranged in many designs before President Taft's executive order of October 29, 1912, provided for six horizontal rows of eight stars each. With the admission of Alaska to statehood on January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower announced a new design of forty-nine stars in seven staggered rows of seven stars each to take effect on July 4, 1959. Less than two months later, on August 21, 1959, Hawaii became a state and in July, 1960, the fiftieth star was added to the flag. The new design consists of stars in nine rows, five with six stars, and the other four with five stars. The fifty-star flag has been flown since July 4, 1960.
It is sometimes thought that each star represents a particular state, in the order of admission to the Union, reading each row of stars from left to right, but there is nothing official about this, and Congress rejected the idea during the debates of 1818.

FLAG HOLIDAYS
The flag should be displayed on all days, especially:
NEW YEAR'S DAY-January 1;
INAUGURATION DAY-January 20;
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY-February 12;
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY-third Monday in February;
EASTER SUNDAY-(variable);
MOTHER'S DAY-second Sunday in May;
ARMED FORCES DAY-third Saturday in May;
MEMORIAL DAY-(half-staff until noon), last Monday in May;
FLAG DAY-June 14;
INDEPENDENCE DAY-July 4;
LABOR DAY-first Monday in September;
CONSTITUTION DAY-September 17;
COLUMBUS DAY-second Monday in October;
NAVY DAY-October 27;
VETERANS DAY-November 11;
THANKSGIVING DAY-fourth Thursday in November;
CHRISTMAS DAY-December 25;
and such other days as may be proclaimed by the President of the United States; the birthdays of States (date of admission); and on State holidays.