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Did you know:
- The U.S. Flag has 13 stripes, 7 red and 6 white, starting and ending with the red.
- 50 stars are contained in the blue rectangle or Canton as it is called.
- The stripes symbolize the 13 colonies that originally constituted the United States.
- The Continental Congress, defined the symbolic meanings of the colors red, white, and blue, as used in the flag, "White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red, Hardiness and Valor; and Blue, Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice."
- The colors were thought first to have been used in New England in 1737. The flag was blue with a white canton quartered by a red cross. In one upper quarter of the canton was a globe symbolizing the New World.
- The armed schooner Lee displayed the first American colonial flag with stars, which there is a record, in 1775. The flag of theLee was white. Near its center was a blue anchor partially enclosed by a scroll, and above the anchor was inscribed the word "HOPE." In the upper corner of the flag was a blue canton containing 13 five-pointed stars.
- To meet the demand for symbolic flag for their “cause” the Continental Congress appointed a special committee in late 1775. The adopted flag signified the two dominant contemporary political ideas: colonial unity against oppression and continued union with Great Britain, pleasing both political parities at the time.
- On June 14, 1777, Congress made the following resolution: "The flag of the United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white on a blue field ..."
- In 1795 Congress voted to increase to 15 the number of stars and stripes.
- In 1818 Legislation reestablished the number of stripes at 13 and instituted the policy, "That on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag..." And so it has been.
- In 1846, the American flag contained 29 stars.
- In 1861, the flag contained 34 stars.
- In 1898, the flag contained 45 stars.
on October 29, 1912, fixed the overall width and length of the U.S. flag.
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