50 free The American Flag trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many stripes has the U.S. flag had since the Flag Act of 1818?
Thirteen
The stripes stand for the thirteen colonies, while the stars (50 since 1960) stand for the states.
Q 02On what date does the United States observe Flag Day?
June 14
It marks the day in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes; the U.S. Army also celebrates its birthday on June 14.
Q 03Which state's admission prompted the 50-star flag design adopted in 1960?
Hawaii
Alaska's admission in January 1959 produced a short-lived 49-star flag first; the 50-star flag followed in 1960.
Q 04How many stars has the U.S. flag carried since July 4, 1960?
Fifty
The stars are arranged in nine offset rows, alternating rows of six and five.
Q 05How many times has the flag's design been officially modified since 1777?
26
That makes the current 50-star flag the 27th design and, since 2007, the longest-used of them all.
Q 06Which president ordered the 50-star flag by executive order in 1959?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Executive Order 10834 was signed on August 21, 1959, and the flag became official the following July 4.
Q 07What filled the canton of the Continental Colours flag of 1775–77?
The British Union Jack
It kept the Union Jack alongside 13 red-and-white stripes, and closely resembled the flag of the East India Company.
Q 08Who first flew the Continental Union Flag aboard the ship Alfred on December 3, 1775?
John Paul Jones
The future naval hero was then a Continental Navy lieutenant on Captain Esek Hopkins' flagship on the Delaware River.
Q 09What did the 1777 Flag Resolution say the stars represented?
A new constellation
The resolution said nothing about how the stars should be arranged, so early flag makers used circles, rows and even one big star.
Q 10Who was the only person to claim in his lifetime that he designed the U.S. flag?
Francis Hopkinson
The New Jersey signer of the Declaration initially asked to be paid with a quarter cask of public wine; Congress never paid him.
Q 11What payment did the flag's self-proclaimed designer first request from Congress in 1780?
A quarter cask of public wine
His later bills asked for cash instead, and Congress declined on the grounds that he already drew a salary as a member.
Q 12Who first publicly told the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag, and when?
Her grandson, in 1870
William Canby's 1870 account came nearly a century after the supposed visit, and he admitted he could find no corroborating record.
Q 13Per Ross family lore, what did Betsy Ross persuade Washington to change about the stars?
From six points to five
Q 21An Ohio teenager is popularly credited with designing the 50-star flag as a school project. Who?
Robert G. Heft
No official record supports the story, and a biographer who investigated it concluded the main details seem fabricated.
Q 22What nickname did the Stars and Stripes acquire in Canton, China, after arriving in 1784?
Flower Flag
The name stuck: American ginseng and Citibank are still called 'flower flag' ginseng and 'Flower Flag Bank' in Chinese.
Q 23Which 1861 event turned the banner into a popular national symbol, sparking 'Flagmania'?
The Battle of Fort Sumter
She is said to have shown that five-pointed stars were faster to cut, though no archival evidence supports the story.
Q 14What was Betsy Ross's trade?
Upholsterer
Her shop did make flags for the Pennsylvania Navy; a May 1777 Navy Board record orders payment for her work.
Q 15Where was the first official U.S. flag flown in battle, on August 3, 1777?
Fort Stanwix
Soldiers cut up shirts for the white stripes and used officers' wives' red flannel petticoats for the red.
Q 16Which two states' admission raised the count to 15 stars and 15 stripes in 1795?
Vermont and Kentucky
It remains the only official U.S. flag that did not have thirteen stripes.
Q 17The Flag Act of 1818 restored 13 stripes and set new stars to be added on which date?
July 4
The act was passed at the suggestion of naval captain Samuel C. Reid and returned the flag to 13 stripes to honor the original colonies.
Q 18Which star counts never appeared on an official flag, since no Flag Act passed 1794–1818?
16 through 19
The 1818 act jumped straight to twenty stars, so Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana never got a flag of their own.
Q 19The 1912 act for the 48-star flag was the first to specify what?
An official arrangement of the stars
Six rows of eight stars, each pointing upward; before that, rectangular and circular star patterns were both common.
Q 20On July 4, 2007, the current design surpassed which earlier version as the longest-used?
The 48-star flag
The 48-star flag served 47 years, from 1912 through both world wars until Alaska's 49th star in 1959.
Before the Civil War, the flag was rarely seen outside forts, government buildings and ships.
Q 24During the Civil War, what did Lincoln refuse to do with the stars of the seceded states?
Remove them from the flag
He believed removing them would lend legitimacy to the Confederacy, so the star count never dropped.
Q 25Who sewed the 15-star garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814?
Mary Pickersgill
She was paid $405.90 in 1813 and was helped by her daughter, two nieces and a 13-year-old indentured servant, Grace Wisher.
Q 26What were the original dimensions of the Fort McHenry garrison flag?
30 by 42 feet
Major Armistead wanted a flag so large the British could not miss it; it weighed about 50 pounds and each star was about two feet across.
Q 27How many stars remain on the surviving Star-Spangled Banner flag?
Fourteen
One star was cut out and given away as a gift, and its whereabouts are unknown; several feet of the fly end were also snipped for souvenirs.
Q 28Who wrote the poem 'Defence of Fort M'Henry' after watching the 1814 bombardment?
Francis Scott Key
He was aboard a British vessel negotiating a prisoner's release; his words were set to an English club song, 'The Anacreontic Song'.
Q 29In what year did Congress make 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the official national anthem?
1931
The Navy had used it officially since 1889; Herbert Hoover signed the joint resolution.
Q 30Which sea captain coined the nickname 'Old Glory' for his own flag in 1824?
William Driver
He later hid the flag inside a coverlet in Nashville so Confederates could not seize it, and produced it when Union troops took the city in 1862.