On this day in 1814, Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet, composed the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, which later became the lyrics for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.
was on a mercy mission for the release of Dr. William Beanes, a prisoner of the British. The British agreed to release Beanes, but Key and Beanes were forced to stay with the British until the attack on Baltimore was over.
Key watched the British attach on Fort McHenry from a truce ship in the Patapsco River. On the morning of the 14th, Key saw the American flag waving above Fort McHenry. Inspired, he began jotting down verses on the back of a letter he was carrying. Key’s poem, originally named “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, was printed on pamphlets by the Baltimore American.
Key’s poem was later set to the tune of a British song called “To Anacreon in Heaven”, the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen’s club of amateur musicians in London. The song eventually became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The US Congress made it the national anthem of the United States in 1931.
Maybe…’Literacy’?
I don’t want to know…
Today is the birthday, in 1959, of Norwegian singer Morten Harket who is the lead vocalist of the synth-pop band A-Ha. They scored the 1985 US No.1 single ‘Take On Me’ and the 1986 UK No.1 single ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’, becoming the first Norwegian group to score a UK and US No.1 hit. ‘Take On Me’ was bolstered by the wide exposure on MTV of director Steve Barron’s innovative music video featuring the band in a live-action pencil-sketch animation sequence. The video won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. On 17 February 2020, the music video for ‘Take On Me’ reached one billion views on YouTube. Harket was named a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav by King Harald for his services to Norwegian music and his international success. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3meKlaJL3qo
