Time Line

1896: Flag adds 1 star for Utah (total of 45 stars).

1908: Flag adds 1 star for Oklahoma (total of 46 stars).

1909: Robert Peary places the flag his wife sewed atop the North Pole. He left pieces of another flag along the way.

1912: Flag adds 2 stars for New Mexico and Arizona (total of 48 stars). 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.

1931: Congress officially recognizes "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem of the United States . Its stirring words were written by Francis Scott Key.

1945: The flag that flew over Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, is flown over the White House on August 14, when the Japanese accepted surrender terms.

1949: August 3 - Truman signs bill requesting the President call for Flag Day (June 14) observance each year by proclamation.

1959: Flag adds 1 star for Alaska (total of 49 stars). 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.