@felix_pThe night of the bombardment, Francis Scott Key was stuck on a British ship in Baltimore’s harbor, watching rockets and bombs rain down on Fort McHenry. He’d gone there to negotiate a prisoner release, but once the attack started, they wouldn’t let him leave. All he could do was wait through the dark, straining to see if the American flag still flew. He was sure that by morning, the fort would be taken and the flag gone. When dawn finally broke, he looked and saw it, tattered but still there. The fort had held. He grabbed the back of a letter and started writing, 'O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light...' That poem, 'Defence of Fort M'Henry,' got set to music and spread across the country, eventually becoming the Star-Spangled Banner. It all traces back to one anxious night in the War of 1812 and a flag that refused to fall.

@felix_pThe night of the bombardment, Francis Scott Key was stuck on a British ship in Baltimore’s harbor, watching rockets and bombs rain down on Fort McHenry. He’d gone there to negotiate a prisoner release, but once the attack started, they wouldn’t let him leave. All he could do was wait through the dark, straining to see if the American flag still flew. He was sure that by morning, the fort would be taken and the flag gone. When dawn finally broke, he looked and saw it, tattered but still there. The fort had held. He grabbed the back of a letter and started writing, 'O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light...' That poem, 'Defence of Fort M'Henry,' got set to music and spread across the country, eventually becoming the Star-Spangled Banner. It all traces back to one anxious night in the War of 1812 and a flag that refused to fall.