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MISSOURI

Missouri is a constituent state of the United States of America claimed as the happiest state of the US. The border of Missouri extends Iowa to the north; across the Mississippi River to the east, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee to the south, Arkansas and to the west, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With the exception of Tennessee, Missouri has more neighboring states than any other U.S. state.

Missouri has an elegant flag design. Historically, on January 11, 1822, the state seal with coat of arms was adopted. The coat of arms was encircled by a belt with inscription “United we stand, divided we fall ” with vertical division along the coat of arms of the United States on one side and a crescent and bear on the other. In order to declare Missouri as the second state to be carved out of the Louisiana Territory, the crescent, traditional symbol in heraldry of a second son was intended. The bear i.e. mature grizzly bear was once indigeneous in the area. The other two are the supporters.

The flag had some Latin motto with inscriptions ‘Salus populi suprema lex esto’ meaning “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law”. The crest had 23 stars with one larger raised to join indicating Missouri as 24th state of the union. Those 2 starts are repeated on the blue ring surrounding the central design. The helmet of the coat of arms symbolized sovereignty and Roman numerals for 1820.

The background of the flag has stripes of red-white-blue referring both to the United States and to the short-lived Confederate States of America, consisting of a separate Missouri state government during the Civil War. The present state flag was created in 1909 and was adopted on March 22, 1913. The designer, Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the group responsible for the creation of several other state flags.