Flag
The American flag is red, white and blue. The 50 stars represent the 50 states that make up the United States of America. The thirteen stripes represent the thirteen original colonies. If the American flag touches the ground it is disrespectful and has to be burned.
Star Spangled Banner
The star spangled banner is the title of the USA's national anthem. It came to be during the war or 1812 with Britain. The British captured Washington D.C in 1814 and set fire to the National Capitol Building and White House (where the President of the USA lives). The people of Baltimore, in an act of defiance, sewed together a flag that measured 40 by 32 feet. The point on the thirteen stars were two feet apart, and they planted the flag on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in full view of the British Navy. That evening the firing ceased, but started again about 1 AM on the 14th and lasted until 5 AM, when it suddenly stopped. What the three Americans wondered was if the stopping of the bombardment had signaled the defeat of Baltimore. What they did not know was that both the British land assault on Baltimore and the Naval bombardment had been abandoned, as being too costly a prize, and the British officers had ordered a retreat.
Waiting in the pre-dawn darkness, Key wondered if Baltimore had been taken by the enemy. If that huge flag were still flying they would know that Baltimore had not capitulated. As the daylight dawned they were able to see that the flag was still there! While sailing back to Baltimore, Key began to write in poetic form his feelings on the back of an envelope, and these are the words that he wrote— (the national anthem)
Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stars and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Waiting in the pre-dawn darkness, Key wondered if Baltimore had been taken by the enemy. If that huge flag were still flying they would know that Baltimore had not capitulated. As the daylight dawned they were able to see that the flag was still there! While sailing back to Baltimore, Key began to write in poetic form his feelings on the back of an envelope, and these are the words that he wrote— (the national anthem)
Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stars and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?