On September 13, 1814, as British warships pounded away at Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor with their rockets and mortars, a prisoner on one of the ships changed America's history. He did it with a poem written on the back of a letter. When he was released from custody, Francis Scott Key set the words to a traditional melody and gave the fledgling United States its triumphant national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
