JOSÉ CAN YOU SEE ANY BEDBUGS ON ME

Key

Apparently the Star Spangled Banner, the American national anthem, was written 197 years ago today on the 13th/14th September 1814, during the War of 1812, between the United States and the British Empire. It is stated that during the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross.

Cochrane

Cockburn

Ross

By Dawn's Early Light" 1912 painting by Edward Moran 

depicts legendary moment of September 13/14, 1814. 

Francis Scott Key with his compatriots Colonel John Skinner 

and Dr. William Beanes spy the American flag waving above 

Baltimore's Fort Mc Henry. This inspired Key to write the work

 to become the American national anthem, 

The Star Spangled Banner.

Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one being Dr. Wiliam Beanes. Beanes was a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest with a group of men. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop: they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13 – September 14, 1814. At dawn, Key was able to see an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck. On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which he published in the Patriot on September 20, 1814. He intended to fit it to the rhythms of  composer John Stafford Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven”, a popular tune Key had already used as a setting for his 1805 song "When the Warrior Returns," celebrating U.S. heroes of the First Barbary War. (The earlier song is also the Key's original use of the "star spangled" flag imagery.) It has become better known as "The Star Spangled Banner". Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 (which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play it) and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover.

In the fourth stanza Key urged the adoption of "In God is our Trust" as the national motto. The United States adopted the motto “In God We Trust” by law in 1956.

Here is a rendition of the anthem recorded in 1915, sung by Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Daughter of the President Woodrow Wilson.