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Myth #2: The flag has always had stars and stripes
America's earliest flags did not have stars and stripes. A flag used in 1775, for example, did have stripes, but it displayed the British Union Jack crosses in the canton, the top left corner of the flag that's also known as the union. The primary use of a national flag at that time was for naval ships to be able to recognize each other.
Congress didn't adopt the flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes as the official U.S. flag until 1777.
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