The Secret History Behind the American Flag

The American flag has changed 27 times — and it's always kept the same idea.

Thirteen stripes for the original colonies. A star for every state that's joined since. It all traces back to July 4, 1776, the day the colonies declared independence and became the United States. But the flag itself kept growing for nearly two more centuries, gaining a new star almost every time a new state joined the union.

The version flying today — fifty stars — has a surprisingly ordinary origin story. In 1958, a 17-year-old Ohio high school student named Robert Heft sewed a 50-star flag for a class project, betting that Alaska and Hawaii would both eventually join the union. His teacher gave him a B-minus. Two years later, after both territories became states, the design he'd stitched by hand was formally adopted — raised for the first time at 12:01 AM on July 4, 1960. His grade, the story goes, was bumped up to an A.

From thirteen stars to fifty, the flag has never stopped changing shape. What's stayed constant is the idea stitched into it from the very first version: stripes for where it started, stars for everyone who's joined since.

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