Francis Scott Key wrote his famous poem, originally titled ‘Defence of Fort M’Henry’, on this day, 14 September 1814. It later became the US national anthem. First adopted by the US Navy in 1889, it was officially designated as the national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931, signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.

He and Congress certainly acted on popular demand: in 1930, a veterans’ group started a petition to make the song the national anthem, and got millions of signatures to support it.

What is interesting about the actual words of the poem is that they may be the most literal of any national anthem on earth.

Francis Scott Key was a lawyer, who served in the District of Columbia Militia during the War of 1812. During the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, he was tasked to board a British Navy ship and negotiate the release of prisoners of war. While he was on the ship at sea, Fort McHenry was under siege by the British in the background.

However, since he learnt aspects of the British battle plan while aboard, Key was held overnight, until the end of the bombardment. In the darkness of night, it was getting harder and harder for the onlooking Key to see how his fellow countrymen were holding up the defence of the fort. He had one thing to look at for a clear indication: the American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, waving atop. That is why he is very literally asking at the start of his poem: ‘O Say, Can you see, by the dawn’s early light / ⁠What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?’

Evidently, he is writing about the flag, with its ‘broad stripes and bright stars’ that he was watching during the ‘perilous fights’ and ‘ramparts’ of the Battle of Baltimore. He was given glimpses of the flag, ironically, by the very weapons that were trying to bring down the fort, and by extension, his country: the rockets and bombs fired by the British illuminated the night sky just enough for Key to see that the flag of the United States was still flying, and thus the fort’s defence was still holding strong (‘And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, / Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there’).

So, when the sun finally rose in the morning after the dreadful night, and there was a clear view of Fort McHenry again, Key’s first question to himself was: ‘O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,’ over the United States of America—or, as he described it, ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’.

And the answer was: yes, it was still waving. The US forces were able to hold Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore, and ultimately fought the War of 1812 to a stalemate, settling for peace with the British at the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve 1814.

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