Bald eagle 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States depicting a bald eagle grasping 13 arrows and an olive branch with its talons. The bald eagle appears on most official seals of the U.S. government, including the presidential seal, the presidential flag, and in the logos of many U.S. federal agencies. Between 1916 and 1945, the presidential flag (but not the seal) showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer's right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the flag is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in
Great Seal of the United States foreign governments. The seal was once required on presidential [[proclamation]]s, and on some now-obsolete documents such as [[exequatur]]s and [[Mediterranean pass]]ports. On July 4, 1776, the same day that independence from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] was declared by the thirteen states, the [[Second Continental Congress|Continental Congress]] named the first committee to design a Great Seal, or national emblem, for the country. Similar to other nations, the United States needed an official symbol of sovereignty to formalize and seal (or sign) international treaties and transactions. It took six years, three committees, and the contributions of fourteen men before the [[Congress