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- Background: War of 1812
- Francis Scott Key
- Who Wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner'?
- From Drinking Song to American Anthem
- Key’s Complicated Legacy
- Growing Popularity of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'
- History of The National Anthem at Sporting Events
- Sources
Simmering anger at Britain for interfering in American trade, impressing U.S. sailors into the Royal Navy and standing in the way of westward expansion led the United States to declare war in June 1812. With British forces distracted by the country’s ongoing war with France, the United States scored some encouraging early victories in the War of 18...
A Maryland-born attorney with a thriving practice in Washington, D.C., Francis Scott Keywatched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship anchored in Baltimore’s harbor. Key had been helping to negotiate the release of an American civilian, Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured in an earlier battle. As a condition of the release, the British ...
Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner” and its initial verse on the back side of a letter while watching the large American flag waving over the fort that morning. Back in Baltimore, he continued working until he had completed four verses(only one of which is commonly known today). After a local printer issued the song, originally calle...
Ironically, the melody Key assigned to accompany the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was a popular English drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven.” Written around 1775 by John Stafford Smith, the song honored the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, a lover of wine. It was originally performed at a London gentleman’s music club called the Anacreo...
After the war of 1812, Key continued his thriving law career. He served as a member of the “Kitchen Cabinet” of President Andrew Jacksonand in 1833 was appointed as a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. He composed other verses over the course of his life, but none received anywhere close to the recognition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Af...
At first, “The Star-Spangled Banner” trailed “Yankee Doodle” and “Hail Columbia” in popularity among patriotic 19th-century tunes. But during and immediately after the Civil War, Key’s song gained a deeper meaning, as the American flag became an increasingly powerful symbol of national unity. By the 1890s, the U.S military had adopted the song for ...
“The Star-Spangled Banner” made its sporting-event debut in September 1918, during that year’s first World Series game between the ChicagoCubs and Boston Red Sox. In addition to the ongoing toll of World War I, a cloud of violence hung over Chicago’s Comiskey Park, as a bomb had torn apart the Chicago Federal Building just the day before. During th...
The Star-Spangled Banner, Smithsonian. “Star-Spangled Banner” writer had complex history on race, The Baltimore Sun. “How the national anthem—and subverting it—became a national tradition,” The Washington Post. “How the National Anthem Has Unfurled,” The New York Times. “The Song Remains the Same,” ESPN the Magazine.
USA National Anthem Lyrics. United States of America. The Star Spangled Banner. 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,
" The Star-Spangled Banner " is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the " Defence of Fort M'Henry ", [2] a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.
4 days ago · The Star-Spangled Banner, national anthem of the United States, with music adapted from the anthem of a singing club and words by Francis Scott Key. After a century of general use, the four-stanza song was officially adopted as the national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931. Origin of the melody. “To Anacreon in Heaven”
