A New Constellation

• In May of 1776, Betsy Ross is said to have sewn the first American flag. It had 13 alternating red and white stripes, but also 13 stars that made a circle. The stars represented the 13 original colonies: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia. When the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act in 1777 that declared this flag the official American flag, it said the flag's stars represented "a new Constellation."
  
  

Flag Act of 1818

• This is the first law that specifically stated that there should be one star added to the flag for each state of the union. The law provided that a new star would be added to the flag on July 4 following that state's acceptance into the union. Since that time, one star has been added to the flag for each new state. There are 50 stars on the flag -- one for each of the 50 states.
  
  

Pentagram

• Prior to the late 18th century, heraldry -- or symbolism as it relates historically to coats of arms, badges, crests, shields and so forth -- would depict stars as having six, seven or eight points to represent rays of light. Five-point stars, or pentagrams, were rarely used. The pentagram has many symbolic meanings, including that of man in a microcosm, with one point representing the head and the other four representing arms and legs. The pentagram was also a popular symbol of the Free Masons, a group to which at least several of the founding fathers belonged, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. The United States Armed Forces have adopted the pentagram as a symbol that represents the five branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.
  
  

Laws

• At various points throughout U.S. history, various Flag Acts have been passed by Congress and executive orders drafted by presidents that have provided direction for how the stars are to be arranged on the flag. For example, President Howard Taft drafted an executive order in 1912 that stated the arrangement of the stars would be in six horizontal rows of eight stars each, and that a single point on each star should be pointed upward, toward the heavens.