WASHINGTON — It’s hard to sing and sometimes hard to remember. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a challenge for even professional singers, who have stumbled over it at events such as the Super Bowl.
But it is also the national anthem, the patriotic musical symbol of the U.S. sung before many major sporting and government events.
The lyrics were written by lawyer Francis Scott Key to honor the flag flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry in what was a turning point against the British in the War of 1812.
And so the anthem is getting its due in its 200th anniversary year, beginning today, Flag Day, with a kickoff event at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, where the manuscript has been paired for the first time with the actual flag that inspired it, the 30-foot-by-42-foot banner that endured “the rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air.”