<P> Few records remain of the original design, the most valuable being that of the flag used in the Declaration of Independence, which had a width of two meters and a length just over two feet . The flag was protected by various hereditary institutions until it was stolen in 1980 by members of the Revolutionary Left Movement as a protest against the military dictatorship . This group kept the specimen and returned it in late 2003 to the National Historical Museum, where it can be found today . </P> <P> There is a rather popular legend in Chile that claims this third Chilean flag won a "Most Beautiful National Flag in the World" contest . Its most common version states that this happened in 1907 in Blankenberghe, Belgium, in the coast of the Baltic Sea (sic). Other versions of this story say this happened in the 19th century, or that the Chilean flag was placed second after the French flag; there are even variations that talk about Chile's national anthem, placing it either in the first place or second, after La Marseillaise . The fact that the only documented version of this story gets basic details wrong (Belgium has a coast on the North Sea, not the Baltic Sea) doesn't reflect well on its historical accuracy . </P> <P> The flag of the U.S. state of Texas is similar to the Chilean flag . The flag of Texas was designed and adopted on 25 January 1839; whereas Chile adopted a flag similar to today's Chilean flag 22 years earlier on 18 October 1817 . </P> <P> Like Texas, on 17 January 1840; a coalition of nobles from the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas advocated secession from Mexico to form their own federal republic called the Republic of the Rio Grande with Laredo (today part of Texas) as the capital but unlike Texas, was never formally recognized and ended in 6 November of the same year . Its flag was similar to Texas' in that there were three stars with a red hoist, and black and white bars on the side instead of one star with a blue hoist and white and red bars . </P>

Who had the flag first texas or chile