It’s the start of every sporting event, military parade and official government meeting. It’s over two hundred years old, yet has only been at each of these events for the past century. It starts every Bison football game, basketball game, volleyball game and every other sports game.
Have you guessed it?
National Anthem Day is commemorated every year on March 3, the day that the United States’ “The Star Spangled Banner” became the official anthem of our nation.
The song was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during The War of 1812. It was our second war with Great Britain, and by 1814, British troops had already invaded Washington D.C., setting fire to several government buildings, including the White House, prompting then-president James Madison to evacuate to Virginia with his wife and other government officials at the time. The British then set their sights on the ideal seaport in Baltimore, Maryland.
Key was a successful attorney in the nation’s capital and in September of 1814, he was in Baltimore assisting in the negotiation process of releasing American civilian Dr. Williams Beanes from the British military.
The attack was launched on Sept. 13, 1814 on Fort McHenry in Baltimore while Key was on board a ship anchored in the harbor. For some twenty-five hours, the British attacked Fort McHenry while Key watched from the deck of the ship. The battle lasted into the night, and in the darkness, Key could no longer see the Fort.
As the night went on, Key wondered if the Americans had lost the Fort. When dawn broke, Key could see a huge American flag, battered, but still flying, a sign of victory for the Americans. The sight inspired him to write a poem out of pride for his country. Once he returned to land, he perfected four verses and first published his creation under the name “The Defence of Fort M’Henry.”
In November, the poem was published under the name “The Star Spangled Banner.” The song became very popular across the nation, but its journey to being national anthem would be a long and drawn-out process.
At first, the tune was inferior to the more popular “Yankee Doodle” and other songs, but started to grow in fame during the Civil War in the 1860s. In the 1890s, it started being used at ceremonies for the raising and lowering of the flag. It wasn’t until 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order making it our official national anthem.
On Mar. 3, 1931, it was Congress that signed the official measure that declared Francis Scott Key’s “The Star Spangled Banner” our national anthem. Before then, “My Country ‘tis of Thee” and “Hail Colombia” were on the list of songs we used for our anthem, but nothing was official.
The national anthem has a rich history, and is well deserving of its own national holiday.