In fact, it didn’t become the national anthem until Congress passed a resolution making it so on Ma119 years after it was first written!Ĥ. The Star-Spangled-Banner was just one of many patriotic tunes popular in 19 th Century America. 14, 1814, while on an American truce ship anchored in the Patapsco River, Leepson writes.ģ. Key wrote the lyrics on the morning of Sept. Originally entitled The Defence of Fort McHenry, the verses of The Star Spangled Banner were wedded to the popular British ditty The Anacreon in Heaven. Key “borrowed” the melody from a British drinking song. Back in that time period, it was common for people to take lyrics and put them to well-known tunes.”Ģ. “He was not musical and he had never written a song in his life. “Up until relatively recently, historians believed Key was writing a poem that night,” Leepson said in a recent interview. In his new biography What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life, Marc Leepson writes that the song’s author may have actually been tone deaf. Here are some little-known facts about Key and his famous song. 13 to 14, 1814 British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbour. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the iconic song after watching the Sept.
Most critics agree that The Star-Spangled-Banner is difficult to sing. The long journey from a poem written on the back of a letter to our country’s national anthem took 117 years.A contemporary illustration of the British fleet’s attack on Fort McHenry, the inspiration for The Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. He signed a Congressional resolution in 1931 making the Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover, our thirty-first president, elevated the song to the highest level. Finally, after twenty years and forty bills and resolutions, it became a reality.
The push gained momentum after the World Series as citizens and legislators worked tirelessly to make it happen. Prior to this World Series game, there had been a push to make the song our official anthem. Soon it became tradition to play the Star-Spangled Banner at all baseball games and, eventually, nearly all sporting events. Comiskey Park in Chicago erupted in song as the spectators and players stood and joined in. To honor these brave men, the officials had the band play the Star-Spangled Banner during the seventh-inning stretch of the first game. When it became known, however, that American soldiers fighting in France were eager to know the Series’ results, the games commenced. Out of respect for the soldiers, baseball officials wanted to cancel the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. But it was not until the 1918 World Series that the song took hold of America during a game that almost didn’t happen.Īmerica had been involved in World War One for a year. Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play the War Department standard arrangement to be used by U.S. The song has since become better known as "The Star Spangled Banner". The earlier song is also Key's original use of the "star spangled" flag imagery. He intended to fit it to the rhythms of composer John Stafford Smith's "To Anacreon in Heaven", a popular tune Key had already used as the setting for his 1805 song "When the Warrior Returns," celebrating U.S. On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which he published in the Patriot on September 20, 1814. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop: they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore.Īs a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13 – September 14, 1814.Īt dawn, Key was able to see an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck. Beanes was a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest with a group of men. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one being Dr. The Star-Spangled Banner and World War Oneĭuring the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key and the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross.