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Previous Issues > March 2007 > Way Back When > National Anthem Day
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 Way Back When
National Anthem Day
Way back when, on March 3, 1931, the bill designating The Star-Spangled Banner as our national anthem was adopted by the U.S. Senate. President Herbert Hoover signed it the same day. This day is now know as National Anthem Day.
The song of our nation was written by Washington attorney Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812. On the night of September 13, 1814, Key watched as our country was attacked by the British navy at Fort McHenry. After watching the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air throughout the night, dawn broke. Key was expecting to find Baltimore firmly under British control, but was stunned to see a battered but still flying American flag waving in the sunrise. So inspired was Key, that he wrote the poem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Set to a tune attributed to John Stafford Smith, To Anacreon in Heaven, it became Americas National Anthem in 1931.
Sadly, a recent poll found that two out of three American adults dont know all of the words to The Star-Spangled Banner and many dont even know which song is our National Anthem or why it was written. The members of The National Association for Music Education (MENC) our nations music teachers want all Americans to know our National Anthem and to take pride in singing it together, and for all children to have access to music in school. In support of the National Anthem Project, Kidsville News! is proud to be able to share with you the words and history of our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. For more info, go to www.tnap.org.
The Star-Spangled Banner (The Defense of Fort McHenry), By Francis Scott Key
Oh, say can you see, by the dawns early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
Oer 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
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foes haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, oer the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the mornings first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
Oer 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 battles confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped 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
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the wars desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: In God is our trust.
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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