48 Star Flag of the United States

Fun With Flags: On display at the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia was a nice display of the flag back during World War II. It had been “fringed” and backed with cloth to preserve it but it’s most noteworthy aspect was its 48 stars. This flag was adopted to 48 stars way back in July 4th 1912 and used until July 3rd, 1959. In 1912, two stars were added representing Arizona and New Mexico. In case you were wondering, the 49th star was added on Jan 3rd, 1959 when Alaska was formally granted statehood under President Eisenhower.

But when did the flag change to 50 stars? In August of 1960, President Eisenhower proclaimed Hawaii as part of the Union and we had 50 stars. Bob Heft was the first person to actually make a 50 star flag (which of course used 100 stars, 50 for each side) and it was used in the ceremony with Eisenhower when the flag was changed. Happy 4th of July.