I bet there ain't 2% of millennium educated kids who understand how the Star Spangled Banner Anthem was created or give a shit for that matter. The Brits took advantage of a lull in the never ending European tribal wars around 1812 and decided to try to regain control over the Colonies. They burned the Capital and got their asses kicked by "Old Hickory" in New Orleans. An American, Francis Key, tried to intervene with the Brits over the capture of an American citizen and he was imprisoned on a British ship while they shelled Ft. Henry. His observations of the shelling of Ft. Henry in Baltimore Harbor is the basis of the poem.I wonder how many people know that there were other stanzas of the poem which might have been relevant in 1814 but have become politically incorrect 200 years later. "Then conquer we must if the cause is just and this be our motto, in God is our trust.".
