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The history of the U.S. flag is almost as multifaceted as the people it represents. With dozens of different iterations, the Stars and Stripes has frequently changed as the country’s borders have expanded and new states have been added to the union. Today’s 50-star flag is hoisted at sporting events, schools, government buildings, and near the homes of millions of Americans throughout the world. These six facts pull together the threads of the flag’s 250-year history, including its creation, its symbolism, and where we’ll eventually have to squeeze that 51st star.

Betsy Ross Didn’t Design the Original U.S. Flag

The most enduring myth about the origin of the U.S. flag is that Betsy Ross, an American upholsterer living in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, created the first flag at the behest of George Washington. Historians aren’t sure that ever happened, however. The source for Ross’ involvement came from her own family, nearly a century after Ross reportedly created the flag. Apart from her descendant’s account, no evidence suggests that Ross sewed the first flag. Instead, some historians think Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and designer of other seals for U.S. government departments, is likely the first flag’s creator. Evidence exists that Hopkinson sought payment for the design of the “flag of the United States of America” (he thought a “Quarter Cask of the Public Wine” ought to do it). Although Hopkinson was denied payment, Congress approved his flag on June 14, 1777 (celebrated today as Flag Day). Thankfully, historians now generally give Hopkinson the vexillological accolades he deserves.

The First U.S. National Flag Featured the Union Jack

State militias fought the Revolutionary War’s opening skirmishes using colonial banners, but by the winter of 1775, the Second Continental Congress became the de facto war government of the fledgling U.S. — and they needed a flag to unite the cause. Congress went with something already on civilian and merchant ships, the British red ensign, and sewed on six horizontal stripes resembling the 13 red-and-white stripes on today’s flag. This creation became known as the Grand Union flag, and even featured the Union Jack (sans the St. Patrick’s cross) as a canton (the innermost square on the top left), instead of the usual constellation of white five-pointed stars.

The resulting flag was first hoisted on December 3, 1775, on the man-of-war Alfred, by none other than John Paul Jones, one of the greatest naval commanders in U.S. history. Years later, in 1779, the famous naval officer recalled the day: “I hoisted with my own hands the Flag of Freedom…”

There Are 27 Official Versions of the American Flag

Although the Grand Union Flag was the first banner to unite the colonies’ cause under one emblem, the flag isn’t regarded as an “official” U.S. flag. That lineage begins with the passage of the Flag Act of 1777, which states “[t]hat the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” The colors themselves represent valor (red), purity (white), and vigilance (blue). Some flags included different versions to appeal to this description, such as the so-called Betsy Ross flag, Hopkinson’s 3-2-3-2-3 star arrangement flag, and the Cowpens flag (basically the Betsy Ross, but with a star in the middle of the circle). Hopkinson’s creation is widely regarded as the first conception of what would be recognizable today as a U.S. flag.

Throughout the years, the flag has undergone 26 small changes in order to add new stars for new states joining the union. The first change came in 1795, with the addition of Vermont and Kentucky (which added two extra stripes as well), and this version is what’s known to history as the Star-Spangled Banner. The last canton edit came on August 21, 1959, when President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10834, establishing today’s 50-star flag following Hawaii’s statehood.

The Original “Star-Spangled Banner” Still Exists

After a night of heavy bombardment during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, American forces stationed at Fort McHenry raised the Star-Spangled Banner (the 15-star flag) on the morning of September 14, 1814. Seeing this flag while standing aboard a British ship and negotiating the release of a prisoner, author Francis Scott Key composed the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which later became the lyrics for the U.S. national anthem (adopted by Congress in 1931).

The original flag was sewn by Mary Pickersgill and Grace Wisher, her enslaved servant, and stretched some 30 feet by 42 feet — an extremely large flag at the time. The gargantuan size of the Star-Spangled Banner was a specific request of Fort McHenry’s commander, George Armistead, who told the head of Baltimore’s defenses that “it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.”

Amazingly, the very flag that inspired the 35-year-old poet more than 200 years ago still exists, and is now in the care of the Smithsonian Institute — though sadly not quite in its original condition. For nearly a century, the flag remained in the care of Armistead’s descendants, who made a habit of cutting off pieces of the flag to give as souvenirs. Today, the Star-Spangled Banner is only 30 feet by 34 feet. Although the Smithsonian has recovered many of the lost pieces over the years, some prominent pieces — including a missing 15th star — have never been recovered.

The U.S. Flags on the Moon Are Probably White Now

Today, the U.S. flag is one of the only banners that’s been hoisted somewhere other than planet Earth. Six of the NASA Apollo missions (1969 to 1972) planted a U.S. flag on the moon (the Apollo 11 flag reportedly fell down when the astronauts blasted off from the lunar surface), but decades of UV radiation from unfiltered sunlight have likely bleached the remaining flags white. For example, the Apollo 11 Stars and Stripes wasn’t some meticulously designed space flag capable of surviving the harsh lunar climate, but a $6 nylon flag that may have been purchased at a Sears Roebuck in the Houston area. Some have theorized that the nylon could’ve disintegrated completely, but NASA has examined flag sites using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and has found evidence of the flags still “flying.” In November 1969, only a few months after Neil Armstrong took his famous “one small step” on the moon, U.S. Congress passed a law stipulating that a U.S. flag would adorn any moon, planet, or asteroid during missions fully funded by the Americans. In other words, an international effort to land on Mars, for example, means no U.S. flag will fly on the red planet (not that it’d last very long anyway).

The U.S. Flag Might Need a 51st Star Pretty Soon

The 50-star U.S. flag is the longest-serving banner in U.S. history, being the country’s official flag for more than 60 years (the 48-star flag comes in second, at 47 years). However, three primary candidates — Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and Guam — could one day necessitate a new U.S. flag with 51 (or more) stars. To solve this constellation conundrum for all future generations, the online magazine Slate asked a mathematician to develop a model for the U.S.’s 51-star flag, as well as other flags containing as many as 100 stars. Potentials for a 51-star flag include six alternating rows of nine and eight stars, or a variation on the 44-star Wyoming pattern (created to accommodate Wyoming’s admission to the union in 1890), which would use five rows of seven stars sandwiched between two rows of eight stars. (As a refresher, the current flag has five rows of six stars and four rows of five stars.)

This isn’t the only competing 51-star flag; the pro-statehood New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico designed a flag similar to the original Betsy Ross flag, but the circle is instead jam-packed with 51 stars. The most likely 51st state, Puerto Rico, continues its push for statehood, and it’s possible that the long reign of the 50-star flag could be nearing its end.

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Most of us can recall at least one teacher who made the classroom fun, inspired a love for learning, and provided sincere encouragement. While these wonderful educators are remembered by those who benefited from their lessons, they are often unheralded in the bigger picture. After all, the best teachers tend to keep the focus on their students, rather than themselves.

Nevertheless, the legacies of some teachers have endured through time thanks to their groundbreaking contributions to the classroom — and beyond. Here are nine who truly deserved every apple placed on their desks.

Socrates

Cutting a distinct figure in fifth century BCE Athens with his unkempt clothing and long hair, Socrates conducted his “classes” in the marketplace and other public areas by engaging passersby in discussions designed to winnow out the truths of existence from popular wisdom and ingrained assumptions. Ironically, he claimed he wasn’t a teacher during his trial for corrupting the minds of Athenian youth, though that may have been part of what was ultimately a failed attempt to stave off execution. Socrates is remembered today as a towering figure in the formation of Western philosophy, while his “Socratic method” survives as a proven tool for fostering debate in the classroom. His method also lived on in his most famous student: Plato.

Anne Sullivan

Rendered partially blind by disease and orphaned at an early age, Anne Sullivan had already faced numerous challenges by the time she agreed to teach a 6-year-old deaf and blind girl named Helen Keller. Sullivan famously penetrated her student’s shell by holding one of Keller’s hands under running water and tracing the word “water” on the other, commencing a series of accomplishments that remain awe-inspiring more than a century later. With Sullivan — who is often referred to as the “Miracle Worker” — at her side, Keller went on to publish an autobiography in 1903, graduate from Radcliffe College in 1904, and embark on a career as a world-famous humanitarian. As Bishop James E. Freeman eulogized at Sullivan’s funeral in 1936, “The touch of her hand did more than illuminate the pathway of a clouded mind; it literally emancipated a soul.”

William Holmes McGuffey

William Holmes McGuffey served as a professor and college president at several schools from the late 1820s into the early 1870s. But his greatest contribution to academia came with McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers, the first textbooks to enjoy widespread use as the common school system found its footing in a rapidly developing nation. Expanding to a series of six books after the first two volumes appeared in 1836, the Readers progressed from the basics of the alphabet to advanced lessons in literacy, science, and history, eventually selling more than 100 million copies by 1900. McGuffey’s Bible-based works largely disappeared from classrooms within a few decades, though they remain in print for those with a homeschool curriculum in mind.

Emma Willard

Born in Connecticut in 1787, Emma Willard saw her intellectual curiosity fostered by the progressive men in her life. Her father enrolled her at a local girls’ school, and a nephew later provided instruction from his college geometry and philosophy courses. Willard sought to pass along similar educational opportunities to other girls, starting with the launch of the Middlebury Female Seminary from her Vermont home in 1814. Seven years later, she opened the Troy Female Seminary, the nation’s first higher-education institution for women, in upstate New York. Willard stepped away from its day-to-day management in 1838, but the school, which opened with 61 boarding and 29 day students, continued its steady growth. By 1872, more than 12,000 students had passed through its doors. Now known as the Emma Willard School, it retains the lofty goals of its founder as one of the elite girls’ college preparatory schools in the country.

Savitribai Phule

Like Willard, India’s Savitribai Phule was fortunate to find others willing to nurture what was a gifted, ambitious mind. Married at age 9, she learned to read and write from her husband, Jyotirao Phule, before pursuing a formal education that made her India’s first female teacher. Phule teamed with her husband to open a rare school for girls in 1848 — a move that ignited controversy in a country with strict societal codes but also garnered accolades from the British government. Although she eventually opened 18 schools, Phule’s accomplishments as an educator form just one component of her outsized legacy. She also famously set up support systems for India’s “untouchables,” child brides, widows, and abused women as part of efforts to spark widespread social reform.

Maria Montessori

Already a distinct figure as one of Italy’s first female physicians, Maria Montessori channeled her interest in childhood development into the launch of a daycare center in Rome in early 1907. She subsequently fine-tuned the “Montessori method,” in which kids essentially learn subjects for themselves through immersion in preferred activities and adult guidance. Her schools spread to Europe and then the United States in 1911, before falling out of favor across the Atlantic by the 1920s. Montessori nevertheless continued writing and lecturing until she died in 1952, shortly before American educators began rediscovering the benefits of her methodology. Today, there are approximately 20,000 Montessori schools worldwide, with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and former Amazon chief Jeff Bezos among the accomplished alumni.

Toru Kumon

Amid a steady career as a high school math teacher in Osaka, Japan, Toru Kumon discovered that his young son was struggling to keep pace in his own math class. Kumon subsequently designed a series of worksheets for his son and, upon seeing notable improvement, began instructing other children around the city. In 1968, he retired from teaching to focus on his burgeoning educational service, which hit American shores in 1974. Unlike some of the other educators on this list, Kumon left little room for improvisation in a system that stressed the importance of rote memorization for his carefully detailed worksheets. But his Kumon Centers topped a total of 2 million enrolled students around the world before his death in 1995.

James Naismith

The first full-time athletics instructor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, James Naismith went on to spend four decades as a professor, coach, and athletic director at the University of Kansas. Of course, he’s best known for his stint at the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA International Training College in the early 1890s, during which time he was asked to develop a winter activity for the students. Naismith devised a game in which two teams of players scored points by lofting a ball into peach baskets fastened at opposite ends of the gym. His “basket ball” quickly caught on to the point where college teams were competing against one another by the mid-1890s, en route to expanding into a global sport with an estimated 450 million participants by the early 21st century.

Jaime Escalante

A Bolivian immigrant who had to rebuild his educational credentials from scratch, Jaime Escalante wound up teaching remedial math at Garfield High in East Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. Unwilling to accept the low expectations the school placed on their students, Escalante launched an advanced placement (AP) calculus course in 1979, and alternately pushed, cajoled, and charmed his troubled students into becoming college-ready scholars. In an incident dramatized in the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, all 18 of Escalante’s students passed the AP calculus exam in 1982. However, many of the students made similar errors, which the Educational Testing Services assumed was them cheating. Eventually, the students were allowed to retake the difficult exam and again passed. By the time the famed teacher left Garfield High in 1991, a whopping 600 students at the once-underperforming school had accepted the challenge to take AP courses across a wide range of subjects.

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The Vice Presidency has long been a contentious position — on the one hand, the people who have held the office have been a heartbeat away from the presidency (and eight succeeded to Commander-in-Chief because of the President's death). On the other, many have maligned the job since day one: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived," John Adams once said.

Regardless, the role of Vice President is important, and many of those who have held the title are far lesser known. Here are 10 interesting facts — like who wrote a hit pop song and whose grandson coined the term "veep" — about America's Vice Presidents.

Thomas Jefferson — VP to President John Adams

While in England in 1786 on diplomatic business, Thomas Jefferson visited the birthplace and home of one of his idols: William Shakespeare. He was joined by John Adams, who was then the U.S. ambassador to Britain. The pair weren’t particularly impressed when they got to Stratford-Upon-Avon — Adams called it "small and mean," and Jefferson was appalled by the costs, noting each amount paid ("for seeing house where Shakespeare was born, 1 shilling; seeing his tomb, 1 shilling; entertainment, 4 shillings …").

But the two Founding Fathers did partake in a custom of the time: They cut off a bit of an old wooden chair that was reportedly Shakespeare's own as a souvenir. Some 220 years later, the chip was displayed at Jefferson's Monticello home, along with a wry note he'd written: "A chip cut from an armed chair in the chimney corner in Shakespeare's house at Stratford on Avon said to be the identical chair in which he usually sat. If true like the relics of the saints it must miraculously reproduce itself."

Elbridge Gerry — VP to President James Madison

Elbridge Gerry’s political chicanery as the governor of Massachusetts was so legendary, he gave his name to the practice of redistricting with political aims: gerrymandering.

The word was coined after Gerry’s party drew some absurd state Senate districts in order to elect more Democratic-Republicans, at the expense of their rival party, the Federalists. Redistricting with political aims wasn’t a new practice, but this was a particularly brazen example — one district resembled a salamander — and after Gerry signed off on the bill, critics dubbed it a "gerry-mander."

Martin Van Buren — VP to President Andrew Jackson

Van Buren was a politico of many nicknames: Friends called him the Little Magician thanks to both his stature — he stood about 5 feet 6 inches tall — and his cunning strategy as a politician, and his enemies called him the Fox, for the same reason. After the financial panic of 1837 while he was President, he won a nickname that helped doom his career: Critics called him Martin Van Ruin.

John Tyler — VP to President William Henry Harrison

John Tyler became the first Vice President to assume the presidency when William Henry Harrison died after a month in office. Some opposed his assumption of the office by arguing that the Constitution only gave him the duties and powers of the President, not the presidency itself. (Former President John Quincy Adams complained that Tyler was "in direct violation both of the grammar and context of the Constitution.")

Tyler ignored them — even when his party expelled him — and went about enacting his agenda and finishing Harrison's term as President. Post-presidency, he purchased a plantation in Virginia and renamed it Sherwood Forest (after Robin Hood's famed forest), because he reportedly saw himself as a political outlaw.

Adlai Stevenson — VP to President Grover Cleveland

Both Adlai Stevenson I and a grandson who shared his name a half-century later ran for President unsuccessfully during their careers.

But as Vice President, the elder Stevenson came the closest to actually assuming the office, albeit unwittingly. In 1893, President Grover Cleveland had a dangerous surgery in secret — on a yacht — to remove a cancerous mouth tumor and part of his jaw.

Charles G. Dawes — VP to President Calvin Coolidge

Charles Dawes is the only Vice President (so far) who has written a No. 1 pop song. A self-taught pianist, he wrote a tune called "Melody in A Major" in 1911. Lyrics were added in 1951 and the song was renamed "It's All in the Game," but it wasn’t until 1958 when a version of the song sung by Tommy Edwards rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and on Britain's singles chart. Eventually, the song would be covered by artists including Isaac Hayes, Elton John, and Barry Manilow.

Charles Curtis — VP to President Herbert Hoover

Charles Curtis is the highest-ranking Native American to ever serve in the federal government. Born in the Kansas Territory in 1860, Curtis was three-eighths Native American and spoke French and Kansa, the language of the Kaw people, before he spoke English.  

Alben W. Barkley — VP to President Harry S. Truman

If you’ve ever called a Vice President "veep," you have Alben Barkley's grandson to thank: The Vice President told reporters once that his young grandson had suggested he be referred to as "Veep" instead of the clunkier "Mr. Vice President." While his successor, Richard Nixon, declined to be called by the same nickname, it has become common vernacular for referencing the office and position.

Nelson A. Rockefeller — VP to President Gerald Ford

Nelson Rockefeller liked his co-op apartment at 810 Fifth Avenue in New York City so much that he expanded it up, down, and to the side. During his first marriage, he bought the floors above and below him and grew the home to a 30-room triplex. After divorcing his first wife, the couple split the triplex — he took the bottom floor and she kept the top two. Later, he bought an apartment next door, joining it with his portion of the triplex. He and his second wife reportedly stuck to the next-door elevator, to keep their distance from the first Mrs. Rockefeller. The former Vice President died in 1979, just months before Richard Nixon bought an apartment on the same block.

Kamala Harris — VP to President Joe Biden

The 49th Vice President has a name filled with symbolism. Her mother, Shyamala, named her after a Sanskrit term for the lotus flower, which has a powerful meaning in Indian culture. Kamalā is also another name for a Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune better known as Lakshmi. Kamala's middle name, "Devi," is a general term for a Hindu goddess in Sanskrit.