Like so many famous songs of yore, "The Star-Spangled Banner" started as a poem, called “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” It was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during the War of 1812.

Sheads, historian at Baltimore's Fort McHenry National Monument and ... conservation project that cost about $7 million, the Star-Spangled Banner, as it had become known, returns to center stage ...

he put his joy into a verse published first as “Defence of Fort M’Henry” and then, set to the tune of a British drinking song, immortalized as “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The flag itself ...

Re “Remove ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ as national anthem ... the British sent a downpour of shells and rockets on Fort McHenry for 25 hours in September 1814. Francis Scott Key was in ...

Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment from a ship in Baltimore harbor and expressed his gratitude and relief at the victory in a poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner ... environments of ...