...On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem of the United States. The anthem had been recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

The playing of the song during the seventh-inning stretch of the first game of the 1918 World Series, and thereafter during each game of the series, is often erroneously cited as the first instance that the anthem was played at a baseball game.

On April 15, 1929, Rep. John Linthicum (D-Md.) (1867-1932) introduced legislation that would make the song the national anthem. Francis Scott Key had written the lyrics in a poem in 1814 during the British siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.

Key (1779-1843) was a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet who had witnessed the bombardment of the fort by ships of the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, flying above the fort before the American victory.