Flag of the United States

The first Stars and Stripes was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777 — now celebrated as Flag Day. The flag has been revised 26 times as states joined; the current 50-star version became official on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the 50th state.

The 50 white stars stand for the 50 states of the Union, and the 13 stripes (7 red and 6 white) stand for the 13 original colonies that declared independence from Great Britain in 1776.

No official meaning is fixed in law for the flag itself. The familiar reading comes from Charles Thomson’s 1782 report on the Great Seal: white signifies purity and innocence; red, hardiness and valor; and blue, vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

The most-cited evidence points to Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who billed Congress for the design in 1780. The popular Betsy Ross story — that she sewed the first flag in 1776 — was first told in 1870 by her grandson and has no contemporary documentation. The 50-star arrangement was designed in 1958 by Robert G. Heft, then a 17-year-old high-school student.

The 13 stripes honor the 13 original colonies. Early on, both stars and stripes grew as states joined (reaching 15 of each in 1795), but that quickly became unwieldy. The Flag Act of 1818 set the stripes permanently at 13 and added only a new star for each new state.

Executive Order 10834 (1959) sets the hoist-to-fly ratio at 10:19. Each stripe is one-thirteenth of the hoist, the blue canton is seven stripes tall and two-fifths of the fly wide, and each star is four-fifths as wide as a stripe. The official textile colors are cable Nos. 70180 Old Glory Red, 70001 White, and 70075 Old Glory Blue (often given as Pantone 193 C and 281 C, or about #B22234 and #3C3B6E).

“Old Glory” was the name the Salem sea captain William Driver gave the 24-star flag his mother and Salem friends gave him for his 21st birthday in 1824; it later spread to the flag in general. “The Star-Spangled Banner” comes from the 15-star flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, which inspired Francis Scott Key’s 1814 poem — now the national anthem.

There have been 27 official versions. Since the first Stars and Stripes of 1777, the flag has been changed 26 times — almost always to add a star for a new state. The 50-star flag, unchanged since 1960, has flown longer than any version before it.

The Flag Code (Title 4 of the U.S. Code) is a set of guidelines for displaying and handling the flag — for example, never letting it touch the ground, illuminating it if flown at night, and placing the union to the observer’s upper left. It is advisory: it carries no penalties for private citizens.

Half-staff — the term on land; half-mast is used at sea — signals mourning. The President orders it by proclamation for the nation on the death of officials, former officials and foreign dignitaries and after national tragedies; a governor orders it within a state, and the mayor of the District of Columbia within the District. The Code fixes the period for each named office, from 30 days for a President to the day of death and the day after for a member of Congress, and names two annual dates: Memorial Day, when the flag rests at half-staff until noon and is then raised, and Peace Officers Memorial Day, May 15. The flag goes to the peak for an instant before it is lowered to half-staff, and to the peak again before it comes down for the day.

Yes, provided it is properly illuminated during the hours of darkness. The universal custom the Code describes is display from sunrise to sunset; when a patriotic effect is desired the flag may fly around the clock under a light. Without a light, lower it at sunset. A few places — Fort McHenry among them — fly the flag day and night by law or proclamation.

Not an ordinary flag. The Code says the flag should not be displayed in inclement weather except when an all-weather flag is flown — one made of nylon or another material that sheds water. Most modern outdoor flags are sold as all-weather; a cotton or wool flag comes indoors when the weather turns.

The union goes uppermost and to the flag’s own right, which is the observer’s left — whether the flag hangs flat against a wall or vertically, horizontally or sideways. In a window the union is to the left of a person looking in from the street. Suspended over the middle of a street, the flag hangs vertically with the union to the north on an east–west street and to the east on a north–south street.

A flag flown with the union at the bottom is a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property — the only use the Code allows. Hung that way as a protest it breaches etiquette, not the law.

No other flag or pennant is placed above the flag of the United States or, on the same level, to its right (the observer’s left) — the one exception is the church pennant flown above it during services held by naval chaplains at sea. Flags of other nations fly from separate staffs of the same height and of about the same size; in peacetime no nation’s flag is flown above another’s. On one staff with state, city or society flags, the U.S. flag takes the peak.

On a stage or platform the flag stands at the speaker’s right as he or she faces the audience — the audience’s left — and any other flag stands at the speaker’s left. Hung flat behind a speaker it goes above and behind, union uppermost and to the flag’s own right. On a car the staff is fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender; the flag is never draped over the hood, top, sides or back of a vehicle.

Stand, face the flag and place the right hand over the heart; men remove non-religious headgear and hold it at the left shoulder so the hand stays over the heart. Those in uniform give the military salute, and veterans and service members out of uniform may salute too. Give the salute as the flag passes in a parade or with a color guard; during the anthem, if no flag is in view, face the music and do the same.

The Code says the flag itself should never be worn as apparel or used as bedding or drapery, and that its design should not be printed on things made to be thrown away — napkins, boxes and the like. A shirt cut from a stars-and-stripes print is not a flag and does not offend the Code. Flag patches are expressly permitted on the uniforms of military personnel, firefighters, police officers and members of patriotic organizations, and the lapel flag pin, being a replica, is worn on the left, near the heart.

On the right sleeve the patch is reversed so that the blue star field faces forward: the flag then looks as it would flying from a staff while the soldier advances, the union leading and the stripes streaming behind. Army Regulation 670-1 fixes the rule — the stars always face forward, the position troops call “assaulting forward.” A patch on the left sleeve reads the ordinary way.

No. The Flag Code asks that the flag never touch anything beneath it — the ground, the floor, water — but a flag that does is not ruined by it. If it is soiled, clean it; if it is still in good condition, display it again. Retirement is for a flag that is no longer a fitting emblem for display.

Yes. The Code says nothing against it, and keeping the flag clean and presentable is in its spirit. Follow the maker’s care instructions — most nylon and polyester flags take a gentle machine wash, while wool and cotton are safer dry-cleaned or hand-washed — and mend small tears before they spread.

When a flag is too faded, torn or soiled to display, the Code asks that it be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning. Posts of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars hold retirement ceremonies and accept old flags, and many fire stations, town halls and Scout troops keep a collection box for them. The Code does not require that the burning be done in private.

The triangle fold is a military custom rather than a rule of the Code. Two people hold the flag waist-high, fold it in half lengthwise twice with the union outermost, then fold the striped end corner over corner in triangles until only the star field shows — 13 folds in most accounts, one for each original colony. The Code assigns no meaning to the individual folds; the meanings recited at ceremonies are tradition, not law.

Yes. According to the Army’s Institute of Heraldry, the United States flag never becomes obsolete: any officially approved design, whatever its count or arrangement of stars, may be flown until it is no longer serviceable. A 48-star flag from the 1940s or a 13-star reproduction is as proper to display as today’s flag.

No. The Flag Code is a set of customs written into law without penalties — a guide to respect, not a criminal statute — and the Supreme Court held in Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990) that burning or otherwise defacing the flag as an act of protest is speech protected by the First Amendment. The burning the Code recommends for a worn flag is a mark of respect, not an offense.

Flag Day is June 14, the anniversary of the 1777 Flag Resolution. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed it in 1916, and Congress established National Flag Day in 1949.