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US Statehood Order and Dates

1 Delaware - December 7, 1787
2 Pennsylvania - December 12, 1787
3 New Jersey - December 18, 1787
4 Georgia - January 2, 1788
5 Connecticut - January 9, 1788
6 Massachusetts - February 6, 1788
7 Maryland - April 28, 1788
8 South Carolina - May 23, 1788
9 New Hampshire - June 21, 1788
10 Virginia - June 25, 1788
11 New York - July 26, 1788
12 North Carolina - November 21, 1789
13 Rhode Island - May 29, 1790
14 Vermont - March 4, 1791
15 Kentucky - June 1, 1792
16 Tennessee - June 1, 1796
17 Ohio - March 1, 1803
18 Louisiana - April 30, 1812
19 Indiana - December 11, 1816
20 Mississippi - December 10, 1817
21 Illinois - December 3, 1818
22 Alabama - December 14, 1819
23 Maine - March 15, 1820
24 Missouri - August 10, 1821
25 Arkansas - June 15, 1836
26 Michigan - January 26, 1837
27 Florida - March 3, 1845
28 Texas - December 29, 1845
29 Iowa - December 28, 1846
30 Wisconsin - May 29, 1848
31 California - September 9, 1850
32 Minnesota - May 11, 1858
33 Oregon - February 14, 1859
34 Kansas - January 29, 1861
35 West Virginia - June 20, 1863
36 Nevada - October 31, 1864
37 Nebraska - March 1, 1867
38 Colorado - August 1, 1876
39 North Dakota - November 2, 1889
40 South Dakota - November 2, 1889
41 Montana - November 8, 1889
42 Washington - November 11, 1889
43 Idaho - July 3, 1890
44 Wyoming - July 10, 1890
45 Utah - January 4, 1896
46 Oklahoma - November 16, 1907
47 New Mexico - January 6, 1912
48 Arizona - February 14, 1912
49 Alaska - January 3, 1959
50 Hawaii - August 21, 1959

Evolution of the United States Flag

No one knows with absolute certainty who designed the first stars and stripes or who made it. Congressman Francis Hopkinson seems most likely to have designed it, and few historians believe that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.

Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual arrangements of the stars and odd proportions, these features being left to the discretion of the flag maker. In general, however, straight rows of stars and proportions similar to those later adopted officially were used. The principal acts affecting the flag of the United States are the following:

* On June 14, 1777, in order to establish an official flag for the new nation, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."

* Act of January 13, 1794 - provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795.

* Act of April 4, 1818 - provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state, to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of each new state, signed by President Monroe.

* Executive Order of President Taft dated June 24, 1912 - established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward.

* Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated January 3, 1959 - provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically.

* Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated August 21, 1959 - provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizon tally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically.