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Historic Document
The Star Spangled Banner
Searching for a doctor friend whom he felt had been taken captive by the British, Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key found himself aboard a British warship in Baltimore Harbor on September 13, 1814. Britain had been at war with the United States since 1812, and had just burned Washington the previous month.
As the British were preparing to shell Ft. McHenry, which was held by Americans and guarded the entrance to the harbor, Key was not allowed to leave the ship until the action was over. During the night of September 13-14, he watched the bombardment from the deck, and observed how the huge flag over the fort continued to flutter in the light of the bursting shells and rockets. The next morning, noting that the tattered flag still flew over McHenry, he was inspired to make a few notes, which on September 20 emerged as the poem we know as the Star Spangled Banner. The poem was an immediate success with the public and was shortly set to the music of an old tavern ballad, Anachreon In Heaven. It required another century to be named the official National Anthem.
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