Monday, July 16, 2007
Hawaii and Alaska
Each star on the flag is a state. Count them up: 1, 2, 3… 50. Good job! Remember that states were added all through history. The United States didn’t start with 50! A law passed in 1818 said that a star had to be added on July 4 after a state was added. Unfortunately, this law didn’t say how the star should be added. So in 1958 when Alaska and Hawaii were going to become states, people sent in different flag designs. President Eisenhower set up a committee to decide on the design. They decided on what we see today, the rows of stars.
Here is a design sent in by Donald Edwards. Pretty neat, huh?
