Há 81 anos os Estados Unidos aprovaram o seu Hino Nacional

The Star-Spangled Banner ("A Bandeira Estrelada") é o hino nacional dos Estados Unidos da América. A letra da canção foi escrita em 1814 por Francis Scott Key, um advogado e poeta amador com 35 anos de idade. Key escreveu a canção depois de testemunhar o bombardeamento de Fort McHenry, em Baltimore (Maryland) pela frota britânica, em Chesapeake Bay, durante a Guerra de 1812. Cantada com a música da tradicional canção de pub inglesa "To Anacreon in Heaven", tornou-se popular nos Estados Unidos. Foi declarada hino nacional por uma resolução do Congresso dos Estados Unidos a 3 de março de 1931.

in Wikipédia

I

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes 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?

II
On the shore dimly seen, through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

III
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has vanished out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

IV
Oh, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand.
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that has made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust".
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.