<P> Five - pointed stars became more frequently used in the 19th century . The coat of arms of Valais, adopted for the Rhodanic Republic (1802), was designed with twelve five - pointed stars . The flag of Chile, introduced in 1817, has a single five - pointed star known as La Estrella Solitaria (The Lone Star). The similar flag of Texas was introduced in 1839 . The star and crescent used by the Ottoman Empire was shown with an eight - pointed stars in early forms (18th century), but was changed to a five - pointed star in the official flag in 1844 . Numerous other national or regional flags adopted five - pointed star designs in the later 19th to early 20th century, including Venezuela (1859), Honduras (1866), Philippines (1898), Cuba (1902), Panama (1925) and Jordan (1928). </P> <P> The five - pointed star also came to be widely used in military badges in the 19th century . A red star was used as the badge of XII Corps of the Union Army in the American Civil War, while VII Corps used a five - pointed star in a crescent . In 1916, a five - pointed red star was used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps' aviation section . </P> <P> The American tradition of barnstars, decorative five - pointed stars attached to buildings, appears to have arisen in Pennsylvania after the Civil War, and became widespread by the 1930s . </P> <P> The Swiss 1 and 2 francs coins introduced in 1874 / 5 showed the figure of Helvetia surrounded by 22 stars, enumerating the Swiss cantons (in 1983 changed to 23 stars to reflect the creation of the canton of Jura). </P>

What does the 5 point star stand for