facts behind the star spangled banner song

The British mission was to snatch weapons and ammunition they believed the Americans had stashed in the countryside. In the early morning of April 19, some 700 British soldiers in bright red uniforms marched out of Boston. Colonial leaders like Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and John Hancock began to talk about rebellion. British leaders thought it only fair the Americans pay their share of war expenses. Many Americans were muttering about forking over extra taxes to help pay for British wars, including the French and Indian War. At the time, the colonies-stretching from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south-belonged to Great Britain.Īs you probably know from movies or maybe even social studies class, by 1770 the government of Great Britain’s King George III and some American colonists were not getting along very well. Americans called the conflict the French and Indian War. Ripley, meanwhile, pointed out that Lindy was actually the 67th man to do what he did, so maybe we should all slow our collective rolls.From 1754–1763, British troops and American colonists fought shoulder-to-shoulder against the French and their Indian allies. Lindbergh had just made a nonstop, solo flight across the Atlantic and was being lauded as a hero. But it didn't really hit the big time until 1927 when Ripley did the unthinkable: he called out Charles Lindbergh as a liar. In 1924, it was picked up for syndication by the Associated Press and started gaining even more eyeballs. Originally started as a sports trivia comic, Ripley's Believe It or Not did fine for its first few years.

Just how, exactly, did a single-panel comic – one, by the way, that's still running today – change actual American policy? Through persistence, pedantry, and pissing off just about everyone. Public Domain Back when being outraged took actual time and postage.

Despite Francis Scott Key first writing the 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in 1814, and despite its patriotic popularity during the Wars Civil and World I, it didn't officially become America's song until 1931 – two years after Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not comic riled up the masses and caused a letter-writing campaign the likes of which the world had never seen.

Facts behind the star spangled banner song