Star Spangled Banner/Old Glory

During the war of 1812 (on September 14, 1814), poet Francis Scott Key wrote a poem entitled "Defense of Fort McHenry", being inspired by seeing the American flag still flying amidst the battle. Key never meant for it to become a song, or a national anthem, yet after showing the poem to his brother in law Judge Joseph H Nicholson, Nicholson noticed the poem could fit the sound to “Anacreon in Heaven” , a song written for a gentlemen's social club in London, but gained popularity outside Great Britian, including in the United States, where by this time the tune was familiar to American ears. (The tune was also once the national anthem of Luxembourg). Key may have had this tune in mind when he wrote the poem, as an earlier poem of his was also in the same rhythym and could be set to the same tune. The poem spread quickly across the United States, the first printing of the poem in a Baltimore paper suggested the "Anacraeon in Heaven" tune, and it stuck. A Baltimore music store owner first printed the song under the title "The Star Spangled Banner." It gained in popularity, and was made the official tune to accompany flag raisings by the secretary of the Navy in 1889. In 1916 it was ordered to be played at military and other occassions, and, due to a large public relations effort, it was officially adopted by Congress as the first official national anthem of the United States in 1931. 

The Flag was made by Betsy Ross in June 1776 The name "Old Glory" was first applied to the U.S. flag by a young sea captain who lived in Salem, Mass. On his twenty-first birthday, March 17, 1824, Capt. William Driver was presented a beautiful flag by his mother and a group of Salem girls. Driver was delighted with the gift. He exclaimed, "I name her 'Old Glory." Then Old Glory accompanied the captain on his many voyages. Captain Driver quit the sea in 1837. He settled in Nashville, Tenn. On patriotic days he displayed Old Glory proudly from a rope extending from his house to a tree across the street. After Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, Captain Driver hid Old Glory. He sewed the flag inside a comforter. When Union soldiers entered Nashville on February 25, 1862, Driver removed Old Glory from its hiding place. He carried the flag to the state capitol building and raised it.Shortly before his death, the old sea captain placed a small bundle into the arms of his daughter. He said to her, "Mary Jane, this is my ship flag, Old Glory.