Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777 - stated: "Resolved: that the flag
of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate
red and white; that the union be thirteen stars,
white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." 

  Act of January 13, 1794 - provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795. 

  Act of April 4, 1818 - provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state,
to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following
the admission of each new state. 

  Executive Order of President Taft dated June 24, 1912 - established
proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of
the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single
point of each star to be upward. 

  Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated January 3, 1959 -
provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of
seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically. 

  Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated August 21, 1959 -
provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of
stars staggered horizon tally and eleven rows of stars staggered
vertically. 

New Year's Day      Lincoln's Birthday       Washington's Birthday

On November 1, 1751, a letter was sent to Robert
Charles, the Colonial Agent of the Province of
Pennsylvania who was working in London. Signed by
Isaac Norris, Thomas Leech, and Edward Warner, it
represented the desires of the Assembly to purchase
a bell for the State House (now Independence Hall)
steeple. The bell was ordered from Whitechapel
Foundry, with instructions to inscribe on it the
passage from Leviticus.

The bell arrived in Philadelphia on
September 1, 1752, but was not hung
until March 10, 1753, on which day Isaac
Norris wrote, "I had the mortification to
hear that it was cracked by a stroke of
the clapper without any other viollence
[sic] as it was hung up to try the sound."

The cause of the break is thought to have been
attributable either to flaws in its casting or, as they
thought at the time, to its being too brittle.
Two Philadelphia foundry workers
named John Pass and John Stow
were given the cracked bell to be
melted down and recast. They
added an ounce and a half of
copper to a pound of the old bell in an attempt to
make the new bell less brittle. For their labors they
charged slightly over 36 Pounds.

The new bell was raised in the belfry on
March 29, 1753. "Upon trial, it seems
that they have added too much copper.
They were so teased with the witticisms
of the town that they will very soon make
a second essay," wrote Isaac Norris to
London agent Robert Charles. Apparently nobody
was now pleased with the tone of the bell.

Pass and Stow indeed tried again. They broke up the
bell and recast it. On June 11, 1753, the New York
Mercury reported, "Last Week was raised and fix'd in
the Statehouse Steeple, the new great Bell, cast here
by Pass and Stow, weighing 2080 lbs."

In November, Norris wrote to Robert Charles that he
was still displeased with the bell and requested that
Whitechapel cast a new one.

Upon the arrival of the new bell from England, it was
agreed that it sounded no better than the Pass and
Stow bell. So the "Liberty Bell" remained where it was
in the steeple, and the new Whitechapel bell was
placed in the cupola on the State House roof and
attached to the clock to sound the hours.

The Liberty Bell was rung to call the Assembly
together and to summon people together for special
announcements and events. The Liberty Bell tolled
frequently. Among the more historically important
occasions, it tolled when Benjamin Franklin was sent
to England to address Colonial grievances, it tolled
When King George III ascended to the throne in 1761,
and it tolled to call together the people of Philadelphia
to discuss the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act
in 1765.

In 1772 a petition was sent to the
Assembly stating that the people in the
vicinity of the State House were
"incommoded and distressed" by the
constant "ringing of the great Bell in the
steeple."

But it continued tolling for the First Continental
Congress in 1774, the Battle of Lexington and
Concord in 1775 and its most resonant tolling was on
July 8, 1776, when it summoned the citizenry for the
reading of the Declaration of Independence produced
by the Second Continental Congress.

In October 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia.
Weeks earlier all bells, including the Liberty Bell, were
removed from the city. It was well understood that, if
left, they would likely be melted down and used for
cannon. The Liberty Bell was removed from the city
and hidden in the floorboards of the Zion Reformed
Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is still around
for you to visit.
Throughout the period from 1790 to 1800, when
Philadelphia was the nation's capital, uses of the Bell
included calling the state legislature into session,
summoning voters to hand in their ballots at the State
House window, and tolling to commemorate
Washington's birthday and celebrate the Fourth of
July.