Today Is The 200th Anniversary Of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ [VIDEO\

One of the most amazing songs ever written turns 200 years old today. It is a song of our Country, it is a song that we sing at the beginning of every sports game, it is a song that we all should know, but we don't. How much do you know about 'The Star Spangled Banner'.

Whitney Houston's rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl, days after the beginning of the Persian Gulf War, has become the definitive version of the song. Try to listen to it without tearing up:

You might not know a lot about the song. It hasn't always been our National Anthem, but was written during the War of 1812. Some other facts:

1. It was written by Francis Scott Key the morning after the British tried to bomb Fort McHenry off the map. He really was wondering if the flag was still there because if it wasn't, it could have meant the end of the United States of America.

2. It wasn't made the official National Anthem until 1931. The Navy did use it before then in their official ceremonies.

3. The first time 'The Star Spangled Banner' was sung at a sporting event was at a baseball game in 1862 in Brooklyn, New York. Now, it is traditionally sung before every sporting event.

Here are the complete lyrics of 'The Star Spangled Banner'. Happy Birthday!

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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's 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?

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 full glory reflected now shines in 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!

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 washed out their foul footsteps' 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!

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 heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath 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!