Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom. 'The Star-Spangled Banner' was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931, which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry. Set to Key's poem and renamed 'The Star-Spangled Banner', it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. The Star-Spangled Banners history starts not with Francis Scott Key, but a year earlier with Maj. 'The Anacreontic Song', with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Defence of Fort McHenry or The Star-Spangled Banner, 1814 In September 1814, Francis Scott Key, an attorney and DC insider, watched the American flag.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. The lyrics come from 'Defence of Fort M'Henry', a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in the Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The Star-Spangled Banner ' The Star-Spangled Banner' is the national anthem of the United States.

Origin of the star spangled banner song