The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of a United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem solution on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer as alive as amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars in addition to 15 stripes, invited as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.
The poem was family to the tune of a popular British song solution by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "To Anacreon in Heaven" or "The Anacreontic Song", with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is asked for being very difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is usually sung today.
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the Stat. ยง 301, which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.
Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of U.S. officialdom. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", whose melody is identical to "God Save the Queen", the United Kingdom's national anthem, also served as a de facto national anthem. following the War of 1812 and subsequent U.S. wars, other songs emerged to compete for popularity at public events, among them "America the Beautiful", which itself was being considered before 1931 as a candidate to become the national anthem of the United States.