Things ya never learned in school (or, have since forgotten):

The War of 1812 was a test for our young nation. With the British attempting to seize the port of Baltimore, the fate of our nation hung in the balance. Francis Scott Key penned the words of a song to a tune that may have come from a drinking song sung in local pubs. We sing it at baseball games and other special events, but we only scratch the surface of it. Like some churches that only sing verses 1, 3 and 5 of an old hymn, we too have edited our nation’s anthem to a sound-byte that challenges the duration of our attention spans. How many of us know the full lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner....?

• O! 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;
  O! 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, O! 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.
  
  O! 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!