Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. The early years of American independence featured many different flags. Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey, a naval flag designer and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, claimed to have designed the stars and stripes. The origin story has been contested and mythologised over the years, and flag has been modified officially 26 times since, with the current iteration being the longest-used version over the past 60 years.