It Was 117 Years Before “The Star-Spangled Banner” Was Made The National Anthem

National Anthem Day commemorates the day the United States adopted “The Star-Spangled Banner” as its National Anthem. Written by Francis Scott Key, the “Star-Spangled Banner” became the National Anthem in 1931.

• 18th Century – The melody is based on an old English drinking song called To Anacreon in Heav’n. It was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century men’s social club in London. You can listen to it here
• 1814 – Francis Scott Key wrote the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” while on a mission to make a prisoner exchange for Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured by the British. This was September 14, 1814.
  • 1814 – The Original Sheet Music Featured a Spelling Mistake. When it was printed for the first time in 1814, it featured a glaring misspelling. The subtitle was supposed to read “A Patriotic Song,” but it was printed as “A Pariotic Song.” There are a dozen copies of the original printing left today.
  • 1814 – The first public performance of the song occurred in 1814 when Ferdinand Durang, an actor from Baltimore, sang it at Captain McCauley’s tavern.
• 1861 – Most Americans only know the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner because that is what we hear at sporting events. The original anthem is four verses, each ending in “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” A fifth verse was added in 1861 by the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. His verse included  “the traitor that dares to defile the flag of her stars,” and it was added to support the Union cause in the Civil War.
• 1889 – The “Star-Spangled Banner” was first recognized for official use by the U.S. Navy in 1889 when it was played while raising the flag.
• 1917 – There were several different versions of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” so President Woodrow Wilson asked the Bureau of Education to standardize it, making one official version. The Bureau hired five musicians, including John Philip Sousa, to standardize the song, which was first performed on December 5, 1917.
• 1918 – You can thank the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs when you sing the Star-Spangled Banner at a sporting event. The history is “murky,” according to ESPN, but many trace it to the 1918 World Series in Chicago. During the seventh inning stretch, in a show of patriotism in World War I, the military band at the stadium began playing the national anthem. People spontaneously began to sing along. The Cubs’ administration was so moved by the moment that they made it a ritual.
• 1931 – 117 years passed after Key penned “Defence of Fort M’Henry” before it became the national anthem of the United States of America.  “Hail Columbia” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” held honorary places as patriotic songs. However, the United States didn’t have an officially declared anthem until a congressional resolution, signed by President Herbert Hoover, until “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem of the United States of America on March 3rd, 1931.
• 1942 – The actual flag that the poem was based on first came to the Smithsonian Museum in the National Mall in 1907. But, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to kick off World War II, President Roosevelt had the flag and other national treasures moved from the National Mall to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia for safekeeping. They remained there from 1942 to 1944.
• 1969 – Jimi Hendrix sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and went on to sing his iconic version 60 more times over the next two years.
• 1991 – Whitney Houston’s version dominated the Billboard charts…twice. The singer astounded audiences with her rendition of the patriotic song at the 1991 Super Bowl. Her recording of the song peaked at number 20 on Billboard’s Hot 100, where it spent 11 weeks. A decade later, Houston’s version was re-released in the wake of 9/11 and spent another 16 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 6.
• It Was a Poem Before a Song. Francis Scott Key was a poet, not a musician, so the words he wrote were originally in the form of a poem which was to be titled Defense of Fort McHenry.
• There Were Two Flags Raised at the Battle of Baltimore.  The poem mentions that the flag flew “through the perilous fight,” but that’s not entirely true. There were two flags used at the Battle of Baltimore, the massive 30-by-42-foot garrison flag and a smaller 17-by-25-foot storm flag.
• During the battle, the rain was so heavy that the larger flag (which weighed over 500 pounds when wet) had to be lowered and replaced by the smaller storm flag. In the morning, the storm flag was dropped and the large flag was hoisted.
• Today’s version of the Anthem is Much Different from the Original.  What you hear today when the Star-Spangled Banner is sung is much different than what it sounded like over 200 years ago. Originally, it was designed to be sung by a group of people together, but today it has been converted into a much slower song sung by a soloist and often without any musical accompaniment.
• Much controversy surrounded the choice of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as our National Anthem due to some common beliefs that the song is unsingable given the melody’s excessive range. Whether it’s forgetting words or failing to reach the song’s epic high note, more singers get it wrong than they do right.
• US Code suggests non-military individuals should stand with their right hand over their hearts, hats removed and military personnel should render the military salute with hats removed, if not in uniform; however, not following these suggestions is not considered a violation of the law.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Omni Financial

Soft Schools

ABC7 NY

National Today