In all, from 1777 to 1960 (after the admission of Hawaii as a state in 1959), there were 27 versions of the flag of the United States of America—25 involving changes in the stars only. An executive order signed by Pres. William Howard Taft on October 29, 1912, standardized for the first time the proportions and relative sizes of the elements of the flag; in 1934 the exact shades of color were standardized.