“The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key and John Stafford Smith was formally adopted by the United States of America as its national anthem 85 years ago today. The song had been a part of American public life for almost a century at that point—the lyrics were written by Key in 1814 and the tune had been popular for even longer.

The tune, by John Stafford Smith, was associated with a men’s club in London that was well-known during the Revolutionary War era, “The Anacreontic” club. Members of that long-gone men’s club used to sing a mock-solemn song about the Anacreontic society, so it became a common practice to take this tune, which was neither solemn nor mock-solemn on its own merits but was almost catchy, almost hum-able, and attach it to any new popular poem whenever one fit it metrically. And Francis Scott Key’s poem about watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 fit it perfectly. By 1889, the U.S. Navy used it in ceremonies and it was known as the “unofficial U.S. national anthem” for decades after. A campaign to have the country make it the official national anthem followed and it gathered strength in the 1920s.
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Today is Texas Independence Day, commemorating the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence 180 years ago on this date. The Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico and lasted as an independent nation for just under 10 years.
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