' My Country, 'Tis of Thee', whose melody is identical to ' God Save the Queen', the United Kingdom's national anthem, also served as a de facto national anthem. ' Hail, Columbia' served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century.

§ 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.īefore 1931, other songs served as the hymns of U.S. president Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on Ma(46 Stat. 'The Star-Spangled Banner' was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing. This setting, renamed 'The Star-Spangled Banner', soon became a well-known U.S. ' To Anacreon in Heaven' (or 'The Anacreontic Song'), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. The lyrics come from the ' Defence of Fort M'Henry', a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. ' The Star-Spangled Banner' is the national anthem of the United States.

Dawn of war banners