Perhaps a little fancifully, a star has been assigned to each State in the order of its ratification of the Constitution and admission to the Union. Beginning at the left upper corner and reading each row from left to right, the stars of the separate States are as follows:—
FLAG ANNIVERSARIES
January 1-2, 1776: Grand Union Flag (British Union and thirteen stripes) hoisted over Washington's headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was the first real flag of the colonies.
January 13, 1794: American flag changed by act of Congress, owing to two new States (Kentucky and Vermont) being admitted to the Union. The flag now had two stars and two stripes added to it, making fifteen stripes and stars. This was the "Star-Spangled Banner," and under this flag our country fought and won three wars—the so-called naval war with France, in 1798-1800; that with the Barbary States in 1801-1805; and that with England in 1812-1815.
February 3, 1783: First appearance of the American flag in a British port by the ship Bedford, of Massachusetts, which arrived in the river Thames on this date.
February 8, 1776: Colonial Congressional Committee accepted a naval flag, consisting of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with a rattlesnake diagonally across it.
February 14, 1778: First foreign salute to the Stars and Stripes. John Paul Jones entered Quiberon Bay, near Brest, France, and received a salute of nine guns from the French fleet, under Admiral La Motte Piquet. Jones had previously saluted the French fleet with thirteen guns.