This Day in History September 14, 1814 Key composes "The Star-Spangled Banner"

http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5344 ^

[mainepatsfan]

1814 : Key composes "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Francis Scott Key composes the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" after witnessing the massive British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812. Key, an American lawyer, watched the siege while under detainment on a British ship and penned the famous words after observing that the U.S. flag over Fort McHenry had survived the 1,800-bomb assault. After circulating as a handbill, the patriotic lyrics were published in a Baltimore newspaper on September 20. Set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven," an English drinking song written by the British composer John Stafford Smith, it soon became popular throughout the nation.

Throughout the 19th century, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was regarded as the national anthem by the U.S. armed forces and other groups, but it was not until 1916, and the signing of an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson, that it was formally designated as such. In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a Congressional act confirming Wilson's presidential order.

[mainepatsfan]

I don't believe he wrote a Spainish version.

[The G Man]

Nice job, Francis.

[demonrum]

Does it matter in which language it's sung?

People are dying for the sake of spreading of DEMOCRACY & yer worrying in which LANGUAGE it's in?

[mainepatsfan]

Lighten up it was a joke.

[demonrum]

Fair enough.

Sorry, a bit itchy about the whole thing.

[Always Right]

No jokes on this forum. Read the posting rules.

[Always Right]

Of course Francis Scott Key was a slave-owning white male, so he soon will be washed out of the history book, and our grand children will be learning about some guy named Muhamad wrote our national athem.

[mtbopfuyn]

Way to go, Cousin Francis!

[demonrum]

Tell this guy it's not a joke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMpEr5Mh_I

[fredhead]

Set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven," an English drinking song Could you imangine a bunch of drunk Englishmen singing anything to THAT music?

[mainepatsfan]

I like to ask folks what the song is describing. Sadly many have no idea.

[Cheburashka]

An essay by Isaac Asimov, who might have written a book or two, I can't remember for sure.

Star Spangled Banner

R.I.P., Dr. Asimov.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Thank Heaven he was from Southern Maryland, not Baltimore, or the word "Hon" would have been sprinkled all through the song.

[ZULU]

I like the WHOLE song - especially the LAST verse:

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
From: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/spangle.htm

[demonrum]

I've read a fair amount of Dr. Asimov's work--& he never fails to entertain, educate, & elevate. This piece was new to me & I'm glad I read it, & thank you for posting it.

Like most Americans, I know the National Anthem--but don't. ("You're a bit dodgy on the middle bits, I've noticed." --says the British comedian Eddie Izzard--or words to that effect.)