Wikipedia is so caught up on the history of the flags of the United States that it’s gone into the future. Let’s investigate!

The flag of the United States of America is not a static thing. In the beginning, there were 13 stars and 13 stripes, for the 13 original colonies, a fact American readers may remember being harangued with for most of grade school. The version you saw probably looked like this:

This worked fine until Vermont and Kentucky joined, making for 15 states. The flag changed accordingly, into this:

Is that too many stripes? That looks like too many stripes.

Aww yeah, that’s the ticket. Time to spend the rest of the 19th century sewing on new stars as fast as possible.

We’re lucky we didn’t get stuck with one of those off-brand looking ones where the stars aren’t lined up right. A few more states and we’re up to this:

The classic 48-star American flag, as seen in newsreel footage of World War II. Add Hawaii and Alaska, and you’ve got the current edition:

But why stop there? Why not admit Puerto Rico, and maybe a bunch of other places? You have hypothetical flag needs, and Wikipedia delivers.

Will one of these someday fly over a bitterly partisan Mars base pattered after a 1950s suburb? Who knows. Happy posting!