Interview with Lauren Hart
Pledge of Allegiance
JROTC

Traditions - The Star Spangled Banner

During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key was a young Washington attorney. He sailed out to the British fleet in Baltimore Harbor to help get a captured American released. Key was detained by the British. He watched the attack of Fort McHenry on the nights of Sept.13th - 14th, 1814.

The fort withstood the attack and the U.S. flag was still flying at dawn. Key wrote some verses about this after he left the British ship in the morning, and the lyrics were published in a Baltimore newspaper on Sept. 20, 1814.

The tune was taken from a popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven." The song was British.

The Star-Spangled Banner officially became our national anthem in 1916.

The large flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes was originally 30 by 42 feet.

This is a photo of the real flag that Francis Scott Key saw flying over Ft. McHenry. It has been kept since 1912 at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.