It’s Flag Day – What Do You Know About the Flag?

We celebrate Flag Day each year on June 14th because it was on this date in 1777 that Congress authorized the design of the first American flag.

Betsy Ross is credited with designing the first American flag even though there's no solid evidence that she really did.  So why spoil a good story.

There are 13 stripes on the flag representing each of the first 13 colonies.  There are 7 red stripes and 6 white ones.

There are 9 lines of stars on the flag; 5 lines with six stars and four lines with five stars.

The basic design of the flag has been the same, but every time a state or states are added, there's a new design of stars on the blue background.  The 50-star flag is the 27th different flag design.

You've seen the American flags that cover a football field.  We've seen them at Buffalo Bills games.  They're 300 feet long by 150 feet wide.

The largest flying American flag is in Gastonia, North Carolina.  The AMVETS Post in Gastonia took 7 years to raise enough money for it to be made.  The flag is on a flag pole 225 feet high.  Each stripe on the flag is 5 feet tall.  Can you imagine that?  5 feet.  Each star is 4-feet across.  The flag can be seen from 30 miles away.

There's a flag even bigger than that.  The world's largest flag is in the Guiness Book of Records.  It's an American flag 505 feet long, 225 feet long.  It weighs 3000 pounds and takes 500 people to unfurl.