Francis Scott Key wrote the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the US national anthem celebrated during America250.
Key composed the poem in September 1814 after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812. Seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn inspired the poem “Defence of Fort M'Henry.”
The poem was published soon afterward and was set to the melody of “Anacreon in Heaven,” an English song associated with the Anacreontic Society. The tune was not written by Key, which is why the anthem’s words and music have different origins.
Congress made “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem in 1931. The official anthem has four stanzas, although public performances usually use only the first. Key was a lawyer and amateur poet, not a professional composer, and he later served as a district attorney in Washington, DC.