Today, June 14 marks a special day in the US. It is the day we celebrate the US flag. It was on this day in 1777 that the Founding Fathers passed a resolution saying that the flag of the United States should have 13 stripes and 13 stars to represent the original colonies that became the first states of the newly independent country. Although we have added a few more stars since then, the design of the flag has stayed pretty much the same.
When the original resolution was passed it did not say how the 13 stars should appear on the blue field. Should they be in rows or should they be scattered randomly like stars in the night sky? Since the lay out of stars was not stated, flags from that time period have many different patterns. However, there was one design that was the most popular. The 13 stars were arranged in a circle and it is what we call the Betsy Ross Flag.
Betsy Ross was a seamstress and flagmaker. She was also a friend of George Washington. As the story goes, Washington asked her to make a flag from a design he had sketched and the US flag was born.
This is a story many Americans grow up learning. However, historians have not been able to prove that the story is true. They do know that Betsy Ross was a real person who made flags and she did know George Washington. But did she make the first US flag? We may never know. But it does make an interesting story.
Thanks for listening. This has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.
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