Flag Day: 7 interesting facts about the American flag and its history
5. Did a high schooler design the current flag?
Regarding the current 50-star U.S. flag, a widespread claim is that it was designed by an Ohio high school student named Robert Heft in 1958, originally as part of a class assignment.
Heft himself advanced these claims in an interview conducted shortly before he died in 2009, having reportedly gotten the flag approved after a phone call with President Dwight Eisenhower.
However, a 2022 report by Slate found multiple inconsistencies in Heft’s story and a lack of primary-source evidence, ironically comparable to the tale of Betsy Ross.
“The real origins of the flag remain unclear. Photographs of flags with the modern arrangement of 50 stars were widely circulated as early as 1952,” wrote Alec Nevala-Lee for Slate.
“Of all the people who took credit for spearheading the design, perhaps the most convincing was William R. Furlong, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, who was the first official known to have discussed the flag with Eisenhower.”
