I recently added the History Channel's This Day in History webpage to my list of online favorites to check periodically. It turns out today is an important birthday in American history.
192 years ago an American lawyer was sitting on a British ship just off shore of Fort McHenry in Maryland. As the night passed on Sept. 13 and day broke on the 14th, this lawyer looked out his port hole to see a worn and tattered American flag hanging over the Fort and sat down to pen the lyrics of "The Star Spangled Banner."Francis Scott Key's poem about the flag's survival of the 1,800 bomb British assault during the War of 1812 was later published on Sept. 20 in a Baltimore newspaper, and later ironically set to the tune of an English drinking song, "To Anacrean in Heaven." However, it was not until Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order in 1916 that the lyrics became the nation's anthem, confirmed in 1931 by a Congressional act signed Herbert Hoover.
Looking around online today, I just found this as an interesting birthday as the morning of Sept. 16 approaches for myself.
One friend of mine who shares the Star Spangled Banner's birthday wrote yesterday that birthdays can be a time for reflection..."a time to reflect on old times, memories and friends, and contemplate where you are now and what you want to do in the future." As she approaches her senior year in college, she is asking the questions we all faced at this cross road and still face...wanting to do the right thing, find the right job, right person, right location and ponder if there is more that we should be doing to help those in need.
Birthdays are a reminder of age, whether you count it as 23 years, 276 months, or over 8400 days. However, as we approach birthdays, my friend is right - the time can be used to look back to your past and remember the people and stories along the way, to remember the parties and gifts, and fun times.
For me, in addition to remembering how I spent my birthday with family and friends in the past, I associate Sept. 16 with Auburn v. LSU, Mexican Independence, and now, as I learned today, the sailing of the Mayflower from
England to Plymouth, Mass. and Road Runner who shares my birthday in 1949.Data for this blog was collect at This Day in History (Check it out!)
