On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated, “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson designated June 14 to be the official day for recognizing the adoption of the American flag, a day that would not become “National Flag Day” until an act of Congress in 1949. However, the flag’s first observances had been held nearly a century earlier in 1877 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flag’s official adoption at the time.