Friday, September 14, 2012

This Day in History–September 14th 1814

Very Fitting for a Red Shirt Friday and with the world in a turmoil -

On September 13th, 1814 a man named Francis Scott Key witnessed Fort McHenry in Maryland go under attack by the British Army during the War of 1812 called the Battle of Baltimore. The next morning, he noticed a tattered and torn U.S. flag still flying after the long day of battle and the smoke had cleared. Inspired by the sight of the flag is still flying, he wrote a poem called "Defence of Fort McHenry". Exemplifying American patriotism, his poem was later set to music and became a song, This song which was renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" official became the United States' national anthem in 1931. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson by Executive Order named the the song the U.S. national anthem in 1916.

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O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

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