The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States of America, but it hasn’t always been that way. The song was originally written as a poem by young American lawyer Francis Scott Key during the war of 1812. He watched helplessly from a British ship as they attacked Fort McHenry. He wanted to know who had won the battle, but he couldn’t see which flag was flying above the fort until the ‘dawn’s early light’ the next morning.