74,479 Soccer Fans Belt Out the National Anthem

A record number of Soccer fans needed no prompting when a microphone malfunctioned as the entire crowd belted out the National anthem.

Their enthusiasm was most likely heightened by the feeling of freedom after the lockdowns that dampened the American Spirit, isolated Americans. Now the fans were together again and free.

If you have ever been to a U.S. sporting event—professional, college, or high school—you know the routine. People stand, some place right hands over their hearts, men take off their hats, soldiers salute, maybe fighter jets roar overhead. Then, six of the most recognizable musical notes in American culture are played, and the crowd belts out the first five words: “O say can you see …” Kennedy Center writes.

Most people then mumble through the rest of the song. A recent poll reports that two-thirds of Americans do not know all the words to the first verse of their own national anthem.

when the U.S. declared war on Great Britain, starting the War of 1812. The British war machine greatly outgunned the young U.S. army and navy. The war was also bad for American business, since Great Britain had been the biggest trading partner of U.S. merchants.

U.S. forces struggled to match the British on land, sea, and the Great Lakes. Then in August 1814, British forces raided Washington, D.C. They torched the White House, the buildings that housed Congress, and other government buildings. The destruction of the U.S. capital was a huge blow to American morale. But it also fired up a lot of Americans, including Francis Scott Key, to get behind the U.S. war effort.

On September 13, 1814, Key and a U.S. official rowed over to a British warship at the mouth of the Patapsco River outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Their mission was to seek the release of some American prisoners.

The meeting with the British officers went well, and they even dined together. But when it came time for Key and his companions to paddle home, their hosts said hold your rowboats. The Americans had seen too much. British ships were moving into position to blast the daylights out of Fort McHenry, about eight miles away. Once they captured the fort, British troops would then raid the city, like they had in Washington. The British could not let Key and the others report on what they had seen.

British ships let loose with their cannon as night fell. Hour after hour, they lobbed rockets and shells at the fort, more than 1,500 ka-booms in all.

As dawn neared, Frances Scott Key prepared himself to see his fears fulfilled: the British flag flying over Fort McHenry. But wait. Was that …? Was it …? It sure was. A huge American flag still waved there. The British attack had failed and Baltimore was saved.

Say, can you see
By the dawn’s eaely 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, yeah streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave prooof 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 at the home of the brave