It's Flag Day!

Betsy Ross with the first flag

On 14 June 1777, the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress adopted a resolution, which gave birth to our National Flag. The resolution read: "Resolved that the Flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

"This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation... Though silent, it speaks to us—speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it." —Woodrow Wilson