This Day in History: The Star-Spangled Banner

On this day in 1931, a song Americans had been singing for generations becomes the national anthem. Perhaps you know that The Star-Spangled Banner has its roots in the War of 1812, but do you know what happened after that?

Francis Scott Key wrote the song in the wake of the Battle of Baltimore, which had raged before his very eyes in September 1814. “It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone,” he later wrote.

Key did not think Fort McHenry would last the night.

He awoke the next morning, overjoyed to see the American flag still proudly waving. He felt inspired to write and quickly jotted down a poem. A few days later, he showed it to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph Nicholson.

Nicholson loved the poem. He had it printed as a broadside, along with instructions that it should be sung to the tune of Anacreon in Heaven.

The tune was an old British drinking one, but it was the melody that had been floating through Key’s head as he wrote.

The broadside was distributed widely. Newspapers were soon printing the song with its original title: The Defence of Fort M’Henry. Within a matter of weeks, it was even being sung publicly.

The song became increasingly popular as the years went by. Bands played it during the Civil War, trying to improve morale. By 1889, the Navy decided that the song—by then known as The Star-Spangled Banner—should be played at morning colors, although it played Hail, Columbia in the evening. By 1893, even this had changed, and The Star-Spangled Banner was played at both.

The Army soon joined in, playing the song while lowering the flag at night. Other regulations followed, such as requirements that soldiers stand and salute.

World War I added even more fuel to this fire, and Woodrow Wilson designated the song as a national anthem, at least for military purposes.

People were running into a rather unexpected problem, however.

“By World War I,” historian Marc Ferris explains, “just over a century since the song’s inception, The Star-Spangled Banner experienced so many changes that it evolved like a folk tune, making it mutable to the whims of performers.”

Ultimately, the Bureau of Education created a committee that established one official version of the song.

In the meantime, The Star-Spangled Banner was being used more and more. It was sung at baseball games or in educational settings. Cities began passing ordinances requiring certain levels of respect for the flag and the song.

A November 1929 Ripley’s Believe or Not! cartoon brought even more attention to the matter. “America has no National Anthem!” it blared. “The U.S.A. (being a dry country) has been using—without authorization—a vulgar old British drinking song.”

Just a few short months later, Congress finally held hearings on the matter.

Despite the enthusiasm for The Star-Spangled Banner, not everyone agreed that it should be the national anthem. Some prohibitionists didn’t want to use a drinking tune for that purpose. Some also worried that it was too hard to sing or that it promoted militarism because of its focus on a single battle. Many of these people thought America the Beautiful or My Country, ‘Tis of Thee, or The Battle Hymn of the Republic would be better.

Nevertheless, two sopranos sang the song in committee, proving that it was singable, and on March 3, 1931, Congress gave its final approval. Herbert Hoover signed the measure the next day.

It had been 142 years since the first Congress met in 1789.

Isn’t it surprising that we didn’t have an official national anthem for so long?

Primary Sources:

• Cate Lineberry, The Real Story Behind the Star-Spangled Banner, the Flag That Inspired the National Anthem (Smithsonian Mag., March 1, 2007)

• F.S. Key-Smith, Esq., Francis Scott Key, Author of the Star Spangled Banner: What Else He Was and Who (1911)

• Marc Ferris, Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America’s National Anthem (2014)

• Star-Spangled Banner Telegram (History, Art, & Archives: U.S. House of Representatives)

• The Star-Spangled Banner—A Flag and a Song (National Park Service)

• Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue: Facts about the Star-Spangled Banner (Smithsonian)