America's
Star-Spangled Banner
This story begins in the 1700s, when Britain’s American colonies had no flag of their own.
In September 1814, British ships bombarded Baltimore's Fort McHenry for 25 hours. Lawyer Francis Scott Key, watching from a ship in the harbor, saw the huge flag still flying at dawn and wrote the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His poem, set to music was officially named America's national anthem in 1931.
Have you ever looked at the American flag and wondered how it became the powerful symbol we know today? Long before it was called the “Stars and Stripes” or inspired our national anthem, the flag was just an idea.
This is the true story of how ordinary people—soldiers, seamstresses, lawyers, and leaders—created, defended, and turned a simple piece of cloth into America’s most enduring emblem of freedom.
