seventeen seventy six

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

"The Star-Spangled Banner" as it is officially known was first written bt F.Scott Key as the result of the emotions he experienced during the 1812 war, specifically the bombardmentf of Fort McHenry which he watched that same year. Originally it was a poem called "Defense of Fort McHenry" but it rapidly gain popularity being sung to the tune of a pre-existing song: "To Anacreon in Heaven" (John Stanford Smith), though it was until it was later published as a song that it got titled "The Star-Spangled Banner" and in 1931 the Congress of the United States made it its official national anthem.