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(Wednesday, March 4, 1931) — “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem of the United States today as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution, which had passed the Senate the previous afternoon and passed the House the previous year.

The lyrics come from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.

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Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.

The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “To Anacreon in Heaven” (or “The Anacreontic Song”), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States.