"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of
the United States of America. The lyrics come from
"Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by
the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott
Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry
by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay
during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song
written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic
Society, a men's social ...(+)
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of
the United States of America. The lyrics come from
"Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by
the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott
Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry
by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay
during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song
written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic
Society, a men's social club in London. "The
Anacreontic Song" (or "To Anacreon in Heaven"), with
various lyrics, was already popular in the United
States. Set to Key's poem and renamed "The
Star-Spangled Banner", it would soon become a
well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one
and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to
sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the
first is commonly sung today, with the fourth ("O! thus
be it ever when free men shall stand...") added on more
formal occasions. The fourth stanza includes the line
"And this be our motto: In God is our Trust.".[2] The
United States adopted "In God We Trust" as its national
motto in 1956. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was
recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889 and the
President in 1916, and was made the national anthem by
a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat.
1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed
by President Herbert Hoover. (Wikipedia)
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