National Anthem

The national anthem of the United States is a song called "The Star-Spangled Banner." A national anthem is an official song that stands for a country. People sing the anthem at sports games, school events, and ceremonies. Americans usually stand, face the flag, and place a hand over their heart while it plays.

The words to the song were written by a lawyer named Francis Scott Key in 1814. At the time, the United States was fighting Britain in the War of 1812. British warships had attacked Fort McHenry, a fort that guarded the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Key was on a small boat in the harbor, watching the battle through the night. The British fired bombs and rockets at the fort for 25 hours.

When morning came, Key looked toward the fort. He expected to see the British flag flying. Instead, he saw the huge American flag still waving over Fort McHenry. The Americans had held on. Key was so moved that he started writing a poem on the back of a letter in his pocket. The poem became famous almost right away.

The flag Key saw was real, and you can still visit it today. It hangs in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The flag measures 30 by 34 feet, about as wide as a tennis court. A woman named Mary Pickersgill and her helpers had sewn it the year before.

Key set his words to the tune of an old British song called "To Anacreon in Heaven." The melody was already well known in America. Together, the words and tune became "The Star-Spangled Banner." For many years it was just a popular song. The U.S. Navy started playing it at flag ceremonies in 1889. Finally, in 1931, Congress and President Herbert Hoover made it the official national anthem.

The song is famously hard to sing. Its notes stretch across a wide range, from very low to very high. Even trained singers sometimes miss the high notes. Most Americans only sing the first verse, but the full song has four.

The anthem has also been part of important moments in American history. In 1968, two Black athletes raised their fists during the anthem at the Olympics to protest unfair treatment. In recent years, some football players have kneeled during the song for similar reasons. The anthem brings Americans together, but people sometimes disagree about what it should mean.