98 Fun Facts About The American Flag

Which country's fleet gave the Stars and Stripes its first official salute, in 1778?

France: its fleet at Quiberon Bay saluted the sloop Ranger in February 1778, soon after that ship had carried news of the Saratoga victory to Benjamin Franklin.

What penalty does the U.S. Flag Code set for citizens who display the flag improperly?

None: the Code is a voluntary guide written with words such as 'should' and 'custom', and courts have found that it does not outlaw any conduct.

Which state's admission prompted the 50-star flag design adopted in 1960?

Hawaii became the 50th state in August 1959; Alaska's admission that January had already produced a 49-star flag, which stayed official for only one year.

Under the U.S. Flag Code, when may a flag fly outdoors through the night?

When it is lit: the Code calls sunrise-to-sunset display the universal custom, but a properly illuminated flag may fly all night, and flags fly nonstop by special authority at sites like the Washington Monument.

Who raised the U.S. flag in the famous photograph taken at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001?

Three firefighters raised it, but that flag went missing within hours and was not recovered until 2014, after a TV program prompted a tip.

Which president ordered the 50-star flag by executive order in 1959?

Dwight D. Eisenhower signed that order in August 1959, and it revoked the order for a 49-star flag that he had signed only that January.

What filled the canton of the Continental Colours flag of 1775–77?

The British Union Jack filled its canton until Congress's 1777 flag resolution replaced it with thirteen white stars on a blue field.

Which Continental Navy officer is credited with hoisting the Continental Colours aboard the Alfred in December 1775?

John Paul Jones, the Alfred's first lieutenant, is credited with raising it, and within a year he was given command of the ship himself.

What did the 1777 Flag Resolution say the stars represented?

A new constellation was the resolution's phrase; Congress adopted it on June 14, 1777, and that anniversary was later chosen as Flag Day.

Which congressman is considered the likeliest designer of the first Stars and Stripes?

Francis Hopkinson is the likeliest designer, historians say, while the popular story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag remains unproven.

What payment did the flag's self-proclaimed designer first request from Congress in 1780?

A quarter cask of public wine was his first ask; when he later billed in cash, the Treasury Board refused, saying he was not the only person consulted on the designs.

Who first publicly told the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag?

Her grandson William Canby told it in an 1870 paper, drawing on what his aunt, Ross's eldest daughter, had told him in 1857, two decades after Ross died.

Per Ross family lore, what did Betsy Ross persuade Washington to change about the stars?

From six points to five, the family story goes: she folded a piece of paper and cut a five-pointed star with a single snip of her scissors.

What was Betsy Ross's trade?

Upholsterer was her trade, and colonial upholsterers took on all kinds of sewing, which is how her shop came to make flags and tents during the war.

Which fort that withstood a British siege in 1777 is traditionally credited with flying the first Stars and Stripes in battle?

Fort Stanwix gets that credit from local tradition, but no one is sure which flag its garrison flew, and it may have been stripes only or an earlier design.

Which two states' admission raised the count to 15 stars and 15 stripes in 1795?

Vermont and Kentucky each added a star and a stripe, which is why the 1814 Fort McHenry flag that inspired the national anthem had fifteen stripes.

The Flag Act of 1818 restored 13 stripes and set new stars to be added on which date?

July 4 is when each new star takes effect, so a state admitted just after Independence Day waits nearly a year to appear on the flag.

Why did no official U.S. flag ever carry 16, 17, 18 or 19 stars?

Congress passed no new flag law between 1794 and 1818, so the flag stayed at 15 stars while five more states joined, and the 1818 act then jumped straight to 20.

What did the 1912 executive order first specify about the U.S. flag?

An official arrangement of the stars came first in 1912, ending years of makers' own patterns, yet the order still left the exact shades of red and blue unspecified.

In 2007, the 50-star flag surpassed which earlier version as the longest-used U.S. flag?

The 48-star flag flew for 47 years, from 1912 to 1959, because no further state joined the Union in all that time.

Which Ohio teenager is popularly credited with designing the 50-star flag as a school project?

Robert G. Heft told that story for decades, but no official record credits him, and a biographer who checked old local newspapers concluded its main details were likely made up.

What nickname did the Stars and Stripes acquire in Canton, China, after arriving in 1784?

Flower Flag stuck: Citibank, which opened its first branch in China in 1902, came to be known there as the Flower Flag Bank, for the starry flag it flew.

Which 1861 event made the U.S. flag a popular symbol across the North?

The Battle of Fort Sumter did it: a shell toppled the fort's flagpole, the flag went back up, and after the surrender it toured Northern cities as a rallying symbol.

Who sewed the 15-star garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814?

Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, was paid $405.90 in 1813 for the garrison flag; she was helped by her daughter, two nieces and a 13-year-old indentured servant, Grace Wisher.

Where was the giant Fort McHenry garrison flag laid out to be pieced together in 1813?

A brewery floor near the maker's Baltimore house was the only space big enough, since the flag measured 30 by 42 feet, with each stripe two feet wide.

What happened to the star missing from the surviving Star-Spangled Banner flag?

It was cut out as a gift: the family that owned the flag gave away snippings to admirers, and the banner is now 34 feet long instead of 42.

Who wrote the poem 'Defence of Fort M'Henry' after watching the 1814 bombardment?

Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer detained with the British fleet while negotiating Dr. William Beanes's release, wrote the poem; it was set to John Stafford Smith's 'The Anacreontic Song'.

Which president signed the 1931 law making 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the national anthem?

Herbert Hoover signed it, though the armed forces had already been playing the song at ceremonies for years.

Which sea captain coined the nickname 'Old Glory' for his own flag?

Captain William Driver of Salem named his flag 'Old Glory'; he later hid it inside a coverlet in Nashville so Confederates could not seize it, and produced it when Union troops took the city in 1862.

What small symbol did the owner of the original Old Glory sew onto its canton?

A white anchor marked his years at sea; a relative later gave the flag to the Smithsonian, and the National Museum of American History still holds it.

What large numeral appears in the canton of the Bennington flag?

'76' recalls 1776, but experts date the flag itself to the 1800s, decades after the Revolutionary War battle it is named for.

Which Wisconsin schoolteacher held the first recognized formal Flag Day observance in 1885?

Bernard J. Cigrand kept campaigning for decades, and in 1894 a Chicago Flag Day celebration backed by his association drew more than 300,000 schoolchildren.

Which president issued the 1916 proclamation designating June 14 as Flag Day?

Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it on May 30, 1916, but Congress did not make National Flag Day law until 1949, when Harry Truman signed the act.

Which was the first state to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?

Pennsylvania did it in 1937; a Pennsylvanian, William T. Kerr, had founded a Flag Day association in 1888 and then led the national campaign for fifty years.

Who is credited with writing the 1892 Pledge of Allegiance for a magazine's school promotion?

Francis Bellamy wrote it for The Youth's Companion, which printed it in September 1892 for schoolchildren to recite on Columbus Day, the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival.

Adding 'under God' to the Pledge was meant to set America apart from what?

Communism: the words were added in 1954, during the Cold War, to set the nation apart from the official atheism promoted by communist countries.

Why did Congress drop the straight-arm Pledge salute in 1942?

It looked like the Nazi greeting, so in December 1942 Congress amended the Flag Code to have Americans pledge with the right hand over the heart instead.

Which method of disposing of a worn-out flag does the U.S. Flag Code prefer?

Dignified burning is the Code's preference, though most flags today are nylon or polyester, which can give off harmful fumes when burned.

In which host city did the U.S. Olympic flag bearer famously refuse to dip the flag to a king?

London, in 1908: shot putter Ralph Rose passed King Edward VII without dipping the flag, though the defiant line credited to a teammate is only legend.

Under the U.S. Flag Code, what does flying the flag upside down signal?

Dire distress is the only case the Code allows it, for extreme danger to life or property; mourning is shown instead by flying the flag at half-staff.

Which 1943 Supreme Court case ended compulsory flag salutes in schools?

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette struck down compulsory salutes in 1943, overruling Minersville School District v. Gobitis, a 1940 ruling that had upheld them.

Compared with a typical 3-by-5-foot flag, how is the official U.S. flag design shaped?

Longer for its height: the official design is 1.9 times as long as it is tall, a 3-by-5 flag about 1.67, and private flag makers are free to choose other proportions.

Who explained in 1782 that the white meant purity, red valor and blue vigilance?

Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, gave those meanings in his 1782 report on the Great Seal; the 1777 flag resolution assigned the colors no meaning at all.

On which day does the U.S. Flag Code call for flying the flag at half-staff only until noon?

Memorial Day: the flag goes to the top of the staff at noon, while the death of a current or former president calls for thirty days at half-staff.

Who took the Pulitzer-winning 1945 photograph of Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi?

Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press shot the image on February 23, 1945; it captured the second, larger flag raised that day on Iwo Jima and became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial.

How were the Apollo flags made to look as if flying on the airless Moon?

A horizontal bar held them out along the top edge, and planting them was purely symbolic, since the Outer Space Treaty ruled out any claim to the Moon.

What did the Supreme Court rule in 1989 about flag burning?

It is protected free speech, the 5–4 ruling held; when Congress answered with the Flag Protection Act of 1989, the Court struck that law down too, in 1990.

During which 1984 event in Dallas did Gregory Lee Johnson burn a flag in protest?

The Republican National Convention was renominating Ronald Reagan, and Johnson, protesting his policies, poured kerosene on the flag and set it on fire.

Which astronaut saw the first American flag on the Moon blown over by the exhaust at liftoff?

Buzz Aldrin watched the Apollo 11 flag topple as the Eagle's ascent engine fired about 27 feet away. Later crews planted their flags farther from the lander.

What do experts think harsh sunlight has done to the colors of the American flags left on the Moon?

Experts suspect unfiltered sunlight has faded them to white, because the nylon flags were ordinary ones ordered from a government supply catalog. Nobody built them to survive space.

Which animal appears above the motto 'Don't Tread on Me' on the yellow Gadsden flag?

A rattlesnake sits coiled and ready to strike on the banner, which South Carolina delegate Christopher Gadsden designed in 1775.

In 'The Star-Spangled Banner', which two weapons 'gave proof through the night that our flag was still there'?

Rockets and bombs flashed over the fort all night: the 'red glare' came from Congreve rockets fired by HMS Erebus, and five bomb ships supplied the shells 'bursting in air'.

On which Pacific island is Mount Suribachi, where six Marines raised the flag in a famous 1945 photo?

Iwo Jima's highest point fell four days into the battle, and the famous picture shows a second, larger flag replacing one raised earlier that morning.

The giant flag that inspired the national anthem flew over Baltimore's Fort McHenry during which war?

The War of 1812 was in its third year when British warships shelled the fort for 25 hours in September 1814 and still failed to take Baltimore.

Which institution displays the original Star-Spangled Banner flag in a dim, two-story chamber?

The Smithsonian has looked after the flag since 1907 and shows it at the National Museum of American History, where very low light protects the fragile cloth.

Which West African nation, founded by freed Americans, flies a striped flag with a single white star?

Liberia's 'Lone Star' flag borrows the American pattern but has 11 stripes, one for each signer of the Liberian Declaration of Independence.

What do the seven red and six white stripes on the American flag stand for?

The original colonies get one stripe apiece, thirteen in all. Congress once raised the count to fifteen, then went back to thirteen for good in 1818.

Which state's admission in 1959 created a 49-star American flag that was official for only one year?

Alaska became a state in January 1959, and thousands of Americans mailed the White House their own ideas for rearranging the stars.

The 13 stars on the flag popularly named for Betsy Ross are arranged in what shape?

A circle of 13 stars is the design's trademark, and unlike the stars on the modern flag, each one is turned outward from the ring instead of straight up.

In which city does a house museum mark where Betsy Ross is said to have sewn the first American flag?

Philadelphia's Betsy Ross House on Arch Street draws crowds, yet historians doubt she lived in that building: the house next door, since torn down, may have been hers.

The Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag ends by promising 'liberty and' what 'for all'?

Justice made the cut, but the Pledge's author also weighed 'equality' and 'fraternity' and dropped both, calling equality 'a dubious word'.

In the Pledge of Allegiance, Americans pledge to the flag 'and to the' what 'for which it stands'?

Republic has been in the Pledge since the 1892 original, which promised allegiance simply 'to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands'.

Which 'March King' composed 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', the official national march of the United States?

John Philip Sousa wrote it on Christmas Day 1896, and circus bands later saved the tune for emergencies, playing it only to warn staff of a disaster.

Which Bruce Springsteen album cover shows the singer from behind, facing the stripes of a giant American flag?

Born in the U.S.A. shows Springsteen in jeans and a white T-shirt with a red baseball cap in his back pocket, in a photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

What is the study of flags called, a word coined in the 1950s by American scholar Whitney Smith?

Vexillology comes from vexillum, the Latin name for a square flag carried by Roman cavalry, joined to the Greek ending for 'study'.

Which black-and-white banner flown at the White House carries the words 'You Are Not Forgotten'?

The POW/MIA flag was created in the early 1970s at the urging of Mary Hoff, whose Navy husband was missing in Southeast Asia, and it first flew over the White House in 1982.

Americans can ask their member of Congress for a flag that has flown over which building?

The U.S. Capitol has run the program since 1937, flying small flags daily all year and skipping only Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Which U.S. president was born on Flag Day, June 14, the same year as two other future presidents?

Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946, the flag's 169th birthday; George W. Bush followed that July and Bill Clinton that August.

Schoolchildren recited the new Pledge of Allegiance in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of what event?

Columbus's first voyage turned 400 that October, and a children's magazine running a school flag drive printed the Pledge as part of a nationwide classroom celebration.

The Pledge of Allegiance swapped 'my Flag' for 'the Flag of the United States' in 1923 to avoid confusing whom?

Immigrants were the worry: the National Flag Conference feared the foreign-born might quietly pledge to the flags of their birth countries. The Pledge's author disliked the change.

Children of which faith were expelled for refusing to salute the flag in the 1940 case Minersville v. Gobitis?

Jehovah's Witnesses lost that case, and a wave of mob attacks on members followed before the Supreme Court reversed itself three years later.

Flag Day, June 14, is also the birthday of which branch of the U.S. military, founded on that date in 1775?

The Army was created two years to the day before Congress adopted the flag, as militia gathered around Boston in the lead-up to Bunker Hill.

Which president signed the 1949 act of Congress that made June 14 National Flag Day across the United States?

Harry S. Truman signed it on August 3, 1949, though the law stopped short of giving anyone the day off: it created a national observance, not a federal holiday.

Which country star's 1974 song 'Ragged Old Flag' has an old man in a town square tell the flag's story?

Johnny Cash wrote it in the year Watergate forced Richard Nixon from office, saying he wanted to reaffirm faith in the country and the goodness of its people.

Which 1970 film opens with George C. Scott delivering a speech in front of an enormous American flag?

Patton staged that opening in a Madrid studio in a single afternoon, with the giant flag simply painted on the back wall of the stage.

Which artist began his famous 1950s painting 'Flag' after having a dream about the American flag?

Jasper Johns was 24 when he built the picture from hot wax, oil paint and scraps of newspaper on three canvases; a later version sold for $36 million.

Which famous 1851 painting of a Christmas-night attack in 1776 shows a Stars and Stripes that did not yet exist?

Washington Crossing the Delaware was painted in Germany by Emanuel Leutze, who gave the boat a flag that Congress would not adopt until June 1777.

Which Broadway showman wrote 'You're a Grand Old Flag' in 1906 after first calling the flag a 'grand old rag'?

George M. Cohan borrowed the 'rag' line from a Civil War veteran holding a tattered banner, then changed it after protests; the retitled song sold over a million copies of sheet music.

The first American flag raised over foreign soil in wartime went up in 1805 at Derna, in which modern country?

Libya's port of Derna fell to a small force that had trekked some 500 miles across the desert from Egypt, the feat behind 'the shores of Tripoli' in the Marines' Hymn.

The flag Commodore Perry flew into Tokyo Bay in 1853 was displayed on which battleship at Japan's 1945 surrender?

USS Missouri showed the fragile 31-star flag back to front, because a protective lining sewn onto it had left only its 'wrong side' visible.

Which fashion designer's label gave $10 million in 1998 to help preserve the original Star-Spangled Banner flag?

Ralph Lauren's donation through the Save America's Treasures program paid for years of conservation work, and the flag went back on display in a new gallery in 2008.

Which state was admitted in 1796 as the sixteenth state but got no star on the flag until 1818?

Tennessee finally got its star alongside Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi, the biggest batch of new stars the flag had yet received.

Which 'Battle Born' state, admitted during the Civil War in 1864, gave the American flag its 36th star?

Nevada was rushed into statehood eight days before the 1864 presidential election, even though it fell short of the 60,000 residents usually required.

With 66 different versions of the American flag in use, which president issued a 1912 order to make them uniform?

William H. Taft signed Executive Order 1556 in his last full year in office, the same year New Mexico and Arizona became states.

What is the American flag called when it flies from the stern of a ship to show the vessel's nationality?

The ensign flies at the stern, and the word is also a junior officer rank, a name that comes from the young officer who once carried a regiment's colors.

The flag flies day and night over the Battle Green of which Massachusetts town, where the Revolution began?

Lexington's green belongs to a short list of places where the flag never comes down, alongside the White House and the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Which ship took the American flag on its first trip around the world, then gave its name to a western river?

Columbia finished the trip in 1790, and two years later Captain Robert Gray sailed her into the river that now bears her name.

The tune of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' began as the official song of what kind of British society?

A gentlemen's club of amateur musicians, the Anacreontic Society, sang it at meetings, and the melody was already popular in America with other lyrics.

Which Fort McHenry commander asked for a flag so large the British would have no trouble seeing it from afar?

George Armistead kept the giant flag after the battle, and it stayed in his family for some ninety years before they lent it to a museum.

Which smaller banner do historians think Fort McHenry flew through the night of the 1814 bombardment?

A storm flag of 17 by 25 feet is thought to have flown in the downpour, with the giant garrison flag hoisted only in the morning as the British withdrew.

In a Whittier poem, which elderly Maryland woman tells Confederate troops to spare 'your country's flag'?

Barbara Fritchie was a real resident of Frederick, aged over 90, but neighbors said she was ill that day, and the flag-waver may have been another woman entirely.

Which British trading giant flew a red-and-white striped flag much like America's first national flag of 1775?

The East India Company flew its stripes long before 1775, and historian Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the firm's flag inspired the American design, though no record proves the link.

Which Cubs outfielder snatched an American flag from two protesters trying to set it alight at Dodger Stadium?

Rick Monday, playing center field for the Cubs in 1976, dashed over, grabbed the flag to thunderous cheers and handed it to a Dodgers pitcher.

Which goaltender of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' hockey team was famously pictured draped in an American flag?

Jim Craig wore the flag over his shoulders like a cape during the celebrations, and it was later displayed at the Sports Museum of America in New York.

Which privateer captain advised a congressman in 1817 to keep 13 stripes and add a star for each new state?

Samuel Chester Reid also sketched a version for everyday use with the twenty stars grouped into the shape of one giant star.

Which president, the last Founding Father to hold the office, signed the 1818 act fixing the flag at 13 stripes?

James Monroe signed the Flag Act on April 4, 1818; as a teenage lieutenant he had nearly died of a severed artery in the attack on Trenton.

Which Pima Marine, one of six flag raisers on Mount Suribachi, was played by Tony Curtis in a 1961 film?

Ira Hayes was the first Pima to earn paratrooper wings, and after the flag raising he was sent home to help sell war bonds on a national tour.

Which federal office has official custody of the American flag's design and makes any change that is ordered?

The Institute of Heraldry, based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, grew out of a 1919 War Department office set up to coordinate coats of arms and insignia.