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Despite the
admission of Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, and
Mississippi as states, the official U.S. flag continued to show
15 stripes and 15 stars. In 1818, Congress enacted a new flag
law that reduced the number of stripes to 13 and provided for 20
stars in the union of the flag. More importantly, the act
provided that on the admission of each new state, one star would
be added to the flag's union, effective on the July 4 after
statehood. Thus, after Illinois was granted statehood in
December 1818, a twenty-first star was added to the U.S. flag on
July 4, 1819.
Since the, the
number of stars has increased and their arrangement changed as
new states have joined the Union. Most recently, the flag
changed following the admission, respectively, of Alaska and
Hawaii as states in 1959 and 1960. Shown above is the U.S. flag
that has flown over Georgia since July 4, 1960. |
