Flag Act establishes star arrangement on Stars and Stripes

The flag that Francis Scott Key saw “gallantly waving” wasn’t the flag in use today. The Continental Congress adopted the first Flag Act in 1777 stating the flag of the United States “be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white,” and that the “union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation” – not the 50 stars for 50 states we see today. Only after more states joined the union was a resolution passed to automatically amend the flag, as appropriate.

On this day, April 4, 1818, the last of the three Flag Acts passed. It stated, as the previous ones did, the flag retain the 13 alternating red and white stripes, and changed the stars number to 20.

It also anticipated the need for further amendments by stating that the number of stars could be changed to equal the number of states every July 4th. It would indeed be changed again the following year, as Illinois entered the union in December of 1818.