National Anthem Day

Today is National Anthem Day, a day set aside to honor the nation’s most famous patriotic song. Written during the War of 1812, the song was originally a poem called “Defence of Fort McHenry.” Its author, poet and attorney Francis Scott Key, was inspired by the sight of the tattered but stalwart American flag still flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the compound had been attacked by British troops. Eventually renamed “The Star Spangled Banner,” the song was set to a tune written by British composer John Stafford Smith and became our national anthem in 1931.