How many stars and stripes did the first official US flag have?

• A. 7
• B. 10
• C. 50
• D. 13

Answer: (D)

The key idea here is how the early United States represented its founding in a flag. The first official flag, adopted in 1777, was set to have 13 stripes and 13 stars. The 13 stripes symbolize the original 13 colonies, and the stars symbolize the states of that early union. As new states joined, more stars were added, but the number of stripes remained fixed at 13. So, 13 is the correct count for the first official flag. The other numbers reflect later changes or different flags (modern flags have 50 stars, for example). There’s a popular tale about Betsy Ross, but the official design was 13 stripes and 13 stars.