The Star Spangled Banner
The Star Spangled Banner
Sunday, September 14, marks the 194th anniversary of the penning of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland."The Star-Spangled Banner" is a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, by British ships during the War of 1812. Frances Scott Key also included a note that it should be sung to the popular British melody "To Anacreon in Heaven."
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition that is formally recognized by a country's government as their official national song. The United States of America's national anthem is "The Star-Spangled Banner."
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover sigppropriate occasions. On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law adopting "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthe United States of America National Anthem: Star Spangled Banner
Listen to the National Anthem
Oh, say can you see,
By the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
Through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
O, say, does that
Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?
