What foriegn country was the first to fly the american flag?

Answer 1

Holland was the first foreign country to fly the flag of the United States. It was at the port of St. Eustatius in the Dutch West Indies. It was on November 16, 1776 in response to a salute that was fired by an American ship.

Answer 2

I wouldn't stake my life on it but I would look to the foreign soil in which we first planted an American flag. That would be either British or French soil here in the US.

First country to voluntarily fly our flag on their soil? Pass.

Answer 3

The first American Embassy was in Tangier, Morocco.

Answer 4

Vietnamese flag

Answer 5

The Rebublic of Texas

Answer 6

the moon

Answer 7

First flag

Grand Union Flag ("Continental Colors").
Flag of the British East India Company, 1707–1801At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, the United States had no official, national flag. Tradition assigns the role "first flag" role to the design commonly named the Grand Union Flag, contending it was raised first by General Washington's soldiers at Prospect Hill, at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, on New Year's Day 1776. This traditional account probably is mistaken, confusing the use of two different flags (the British Union Flag and a red, striped flag) at Prospect Hill as a combined, single flag.[14]

This flag is properly considered the de facto first naval ensign of the United States. It was first raised aboard Continental Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins' flagship Alfred on the Delaware River on December 3, 1775[15], possibly (according to his claim) by the ship's senior lieutenant John Paul Jones.

The origins of the design are unclear. It closely resembles the British East India Company (BEIC) flag of the same era, and an argument dating to Sir Charles Fawcett in 1937 holds that the BEIC flag indeed inspired the design.[16] However, the BEIC flag could have from 9 to 13 stripes, and was not allowed to be flown outside the Indian Ocean.[17] Both flags could have been easily constructed by adding white stripes to a British Red Ensign, a common flag throughout Britain and its colonies.


The Washington family coat of arms.Another theory holds that the red-and-white stripe — and later, stars-and-stripes — motif of the flag may have been based[citation needed] on the Washington family coat-of-arms, which consisted of a shield "argent, two bars gules, above, three mullets gules" (a white shield with two red bars below three red stars).

More likely it was based on a flag of the Sons of Liberty, one of which consisted of 13 red and white alternating horizontal stripes.


[edit] The Flag Resolution of 1777

13-star "Betsy Ross" flag
(original had all stars pointed outward, not upward)On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year. A false tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June of 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment.[18]

The Flag Resolution did not specify any particular arrangement for the stars. The pictured flag shows the thirteen stars arranged in a circle, the so-called Betsy Ross flag. Although the Betsy Ross legend is not taken seriously by many historians, the design itself is the oldest version of any US flag to appear on any physical relic: it is historically referenced in contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale, which depict the circular star arrangement. Popular designs at the time were varied and most were individually crafted rather than mass-produced. Given the scant archeological and written evidence, it is unknown which design was the most popular at that time.

The origin of the stars and stripes design is uncertain. A popular story credits Betsy Ross for sewing the first flag from a pencil sketch by George Washington who personally commissioned her for the job. However, no evidence for this theory exists beyond Ross' descendants' much later recollections of what she told her family. Another woman, Rebecca Young, has also been credited as having made the first flag by later generations of her family. Rebecca Young's daughter was Mary Pickersgill, who made the Star Spangled Banner Flag. Another popular theory is that the flag was designed by Francis Hopkinson. Hopkinson was the only person to have made such a claim during his own lifetime, when he sent a bill to Congress for his work. He asked for a "Quarter Cask of the Public Wine" as payment initially. The payment was not made, however, because it was determined he had already received a salary as a member of Congress. It should be noted that no one at the time contested his claim to have designed the flag.


[edit] Later flag acts

15-star, 15-stripe "Star-Spangled Banner" flag
48-star flag, will remain as having been the longest in use (1912–1959) of all versions until July 2007
An Urban camouflaged American flag patch, as used by the U.S. Military.See also: Flag Acts (U.S.)
In 1795, the number of stars and stripes was increased from 13 to 15 (to reflect the entry of Vermont and Kentucky as states of the union). For a time the flag was not changed when subsequent states were admitted, probably because it was thought that this would cause too much clutter. It was the 15-star, 15-stripe flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," now the national anthem.

On April 4, 1818, a plan was passed by Congress at the suggestion of U.S. Naval Captain Samuel C. Reid[19] in which the flag was changed to have 20 stars, with a new star to be added when each new state was admitted, but the number of stripes would remain at thirteen to honor the original colonies. The act specified that new flag designs should become official on the first July 4 (Independence Day) following admission of one or more new states. The most recent change, from 49 stars to 50, occurred in 1960 when the present design was chosen, after Hawaii gained statehood in August 1959. Before that, the admission of Alaska in January 1959 prompted the debut of a short-lived 49-star flag.


[edit] First salute
The Netherlands were the first country to salute the Grand Union flag, when gun salutes by American ships were returned by officials on Dutch islands in the West Indies in late 1776: on St. Croix in October, and on St. Eustatius in November. (Though later, the better documented St. Eustatius incident involving the USS Andrew Doria is traditionally regarded as the "first salute".) France was the first country to salute the Stars and Stripes, when a fleet off the French mainland returned a gun salute by Captain John Paul Jones commanding the USS Ranger on February 14, 1778.[2]


[edit] Historical progression of designs
In the following table depicting the 27 various designs of the United States flag, the star patterns for each flag are merely the usual patterns, often associated with the United States Navy. With the exception of the 48-, 49-, and 50-star flags, as there was no official arrangement of the stars until the proclamation of the 48-star flag by President William Howard Taft on 29 October 1912. The exact colors of the flag were not standardized until 1934. (For alternate versions of the flag of the United States, see the Stars of the U.S. Flag page at the Flags of the World website.)