The American flag now has 50 stars, one for each of the 50 states. The original flag, adopted on this day in history, 1777, only had 13 stars. (iStock) ...

Congress passed its first flag act on June 14, 1777: “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars ...

However, there was a brief period in which the American flag bore 15 stripes. The Smithsonian reports that the Act of January 13, 1794, allowed for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795.

Wallace Rice, who designed the flag (it had only two stars when adopted in 1917), chose six points because they had “never appeared on any flag” (the American flag’s stars have five points) ...