Download it free on ...br br The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics were written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. It became popular as a patriotic song after it was put to the tune of the English drinking song To Anacreon in Heaven, but was only made the national anthem by a Congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.