“The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the U.S. national anthem in 1931.
President Herbert Hoover signed the congressional bill on March 4, 1931, making the song official. Before then, it had been widely performed and had served as a de facto patriotic anthem, but the United States had no single legally designated national anthem.
Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics in 1814 after watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The melody came from “The Anacreontic Song,” written by English composer John Stafford Smith. The song’s long path to official status is why 1814, its lyric-writing year, is often mistaken for the adoption year.
The anthem officially contains four stanzas, although public performances normally use only the first. “Hail, Columbia” and “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” were important earlier patriotic songs, but neither became the permanent official anthem.