The American Flag
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98 free The American Flag trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The flag of the United States has been redesigned 26 times, flown over Fort McHenry at 30 by 42 feet, sewn into a bedspread to hide it from Confederates, planted six times on the Moon and burned outside a Republican convention in a case that reached the Supreme Court. It also has no legally defined shade of red or blue, and the most famous story about who made the first one was first told nearly a century after the fact. These 98 questions cover the flag from the 1777 resolution to the 50-star version ordered by Eisenhower: the Flag Acts of 1794 and 1818, the Grand Union Flag, Francis Hopkinson's claim for a cask of wine, Mary Pickersgill's garrison flag and the anthem it inspired, Captain William Driver's Old Glory, the Bennington '76', Bernard Cigrand's first Flag Day, the Pledge of Allegiance and its 1954 addition, the Flag Code's rules on dipping, folding and half-staff, the Iwo Jima photograph, the Lunar Flag Assembly and Texas v. Johnson. Easy questions stick to the star and stripe counts and Flag Day; the hardest ask about Pantone numbers, the 1908 Olympics and the Flower Flag. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a Fourth of July or Flag Day round.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country's fleet gave the Stars and Stripes its first official salute, in 1778?
France
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.
Q 02What penalty does the U.S. Flag Code set for citizens who display the flag improperly?
None
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.
Q 03Which state's admission prompted the 50-star flag design adopted in 1960?
Hawaii
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.
Q 04Under the U.S. Flag Code, when may a flag fly outdoors through the night?
When it is lit
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.
Q 05Who raised the U.S. flag in the famous photograph taken at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001?
Three firefighters
Three firefighters raised it, but that flag went missing within hours and was not recovered until 2014, after a TV program prompted a tip.
Q 06Which president ordered the 50-star flag by executive order in 1959?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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.
Q 07What filled the canton of the Continental Colours flag of 1775–77?
The British Union Jack
The British Union Jack filled its canton until Congress's 1777 flag resolution replaced it with thirteen white stars on a blue field.
Q 08Which Continental Navy officer is credited with hoisting the Continental Colours aboard the Alfred in December 1775?
John Paul Jones
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.
Q 09What did the 1777 Flag Resolution say the stars represented?
A new constellation
A new constellation was the resolution's phrase; Congress adopted it on June 14, 1777, and that anniversary was later chosen as Flag Day.
Q 10Which congressman is considered the likeliest designer of the first Stars and Stripes?
Francis Hopkinson
Francis Hopkinson is the likeliest designer, historians say, while the popular story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag remains unproven.
Q 11What payment did the flag's self-proclaimed designer first request from Congress in 1780?
A quarter cask of public wine
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.
Q 12Who first publicly told the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag?
Her grandson
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.
Q 13Per Ross family lore, what did Betsy Ross persuade Washington to change about the stars?
From six points to five
Q 21Which Ohio teenager is popularly credited with designing the 50-star flag as a school project?
Robert G. Heft
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.
Q 22What nickname did the Stars and Stripes acquire in Canton, China, after arriving in 1784?
Flower Flag
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.
Q 23Which 1861 event made the U.S. flag a popular symbol across the North?
The Battle of Fort Sumter
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.
Q 14What was Betsy Ross's trade?
Upholsterer
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.
Q 15Which fort that withstood a British siege in 1777 is traditionally credited with flying the first Stars and Stripes in battle?
Fort Stanwix
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.
Q 16Which two states' admission raised the count to 15 stars and 15 stripes in 1795?
Vermont and Kentucky
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.
Q 17The Flag Act of 1818 restored 13 stripes and set new stars to be added on which date?
July 4
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.
Q 18Why did no official U.S. flag ever carry 16, 17, 18 or 19 stars?
Congress passed no new flag law
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.
Q 19What did the 1912 executive order first specify about the U.S. flag?
An official arrangement of the stars
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.
Q 20In 2007, the 50-star flag surpassed which earlier version as the longest-used U.S. flag?
The 48-star flag
The 48-star flag flew for 47 years, from 1912 to 1959, because no further state joined the Union in all that time.
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.
Q 24Who sewed the 15-star garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814?
Mary Pickersgill
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.
Q 25Where was the giant Fort McHenry garrison flag laid out to be pieced together in 1813?
A brewery floor
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.
Q 26What happened to the star missing from the surviving Star-Spangled Banner flag?
It was cut out as a gift
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.
Q 27Who wrote the poem 'Defence of Fort M'Henry' after watching the 1814 bombardment?
Francis Scott Key
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'.
Q 28Which president signed the 1931 law making 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the national anthem?
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover signed it, though the armed forces had already been playing the song at ceremonies for years.
Q 29Which sea captain coined the nickname 'Old Glory' for his own flag?
William Driver
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.
Q 30What small symbol did the owner of the original Old Glory sew onto its canton?
A white anchor
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.