It’s National Anthem Day. On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a resolution officially making “The Star Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States. It was written 120 years earlier by Francis Scott Key as he watched the Brits bombard an American fort during the War of 1812. As you might have heard, the anthem was based on an English drinking song, specifically, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which was the official song of a drinking society in London. Here’s a taste of the original lyrics. “The Yellow-Haired God and his nine fusty Maids, From Helicon’s banks will incontinent flee, Idalia will boast but of tenantless Shades, And the bi-forked Hill a mere desert will be, My Thunder no fear on it, Shall soon do it’s Errand, And damn me! I’ll swing the Ringleaders, I warrant. I’ll trim the young Dogs, for thus daring to twine, The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s Vine.” And you thought the Star Spangled Banner was hard to sing.
