In 1814, while the war of 1812 was going on, the citizens of Maryland were in a load of trouble. The British bombarded Maryland’s famous fort called Fort McHenry for 24 hours.

During this time Francis Scott Key was in the strangest place imaginable. He was in a small ship moored to the British admiral’s flag ship. Francis and his friend were there to rescue a Maryland doctor that had been captured by the British. As he was standing on the boat looking at Fort McHenry under attack he said, “If the fort lives then all of Maryland is safe”.

The fighting went on into the day. Whenever the smoke was blown away by the wind, Francis peered at the fort to see if the gigantic flag was still standing.

The firing went on all day until it was dark. They could still see the flag, but only when cannon blazed and lit it up.

Finally a little after midnight the firing stopped. As the two men paced the deck of their little ship they asked the same question, “Could the fort have surrendered”. As it became morning they could see a flag was still flying but whose was it?

It grew lighter then the breeze caught the flag. It wasn’t a British flag it was their own stars and stripes. It was then that Francis Scott Key took out a letter and on the back he wrote the poem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

As the British left, Francis sailed to land and sent his written poem to a printer. Before the ink was dry on the copies the printer caught one up and went to a restaurant where many patriots we assembled. He then began to read the poem, when he was finished the crowd chanted, sing it. Then for the first time Charles Durang sang “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Finally, on March 3, 1931, the American Congress proclaimed it as the national anthem, 116 years after it was first written.

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ 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?