Life Is Wonderful To Know Everyday

The 50-star flag of the United States was raised for the first time officially at 12:01 a.m .on July 4,1960,at fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore,Md.The 50th star had been added for Hawaii; a year earlier the 49th,for Alaska.Before that,no star had been added since 1912,when N.M.and ariz.were admitted to the Union.

History of the Flag

The true history of the star and Stripes has become so cluttered by a volume of myth and tradition that the facts are difficult ,and in some cases impossible,to establish.For example,it is not certain who designed the Star and Stripes,who made the first such flag,or even weather it ever flew in any sea fight or land battle of the American Revolution.

One thing all agree on is that the Star and Stripes originated as the result of a resolution offered by the marine Committee of the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia and adopted June 14,1777.It read:

Resolved:that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes,alternate red and white;that the union be thirteen star,white in a blue field,representing a new constellation.

Congress gave no hint as to the designer of the flag,no instruction as to the arrangement of the star,and no information on its appropriate uses.historians have been unable to find the original flag law.The resolution establishing the flag was not even publishing until Sept.2 1777.Despite repeated request,Washington did not get the flag until 1783,after the Revolutionary War was over.And there is no certainty that they were the Star and Stripes.