Checking History can be helpful! Here are some interesting FACTS:
"Nuestro Himno" isn't the first Spanish-language version of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" to have been published.
In 1919 the Star-Spangled Banner was translated into Spanish by the United States Bureau of Education. The U.S. State Department's website shows four Spanish-language versions of the national anthem, including "Himno nacional - La Bandera de Estrellas" which was copyrighted in 1919.
http://usinfo.state.gov/esp/home/topics/us_society_values/national_symbols/anthem_spanish.html It has also been translated into a number of other languages. In 1861, it was translated into
German. It has been translated into
Yiddish by Jewish immigrants and into
French by Acadians of Louisiana. It has also been translated into
Latin and
Samoan.
It has even been translated into
sign language .
http://www.thisdayinhistory.com/starspangled_archive/song/video.html The words were put to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven", a popular drinking song dating from the mid-1760s, written in London by John Stafford Smith. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy (1889) and by the White House (1916). In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. Two years later, in 1918, the song was first played at a baseball game; in the World Series, the band started an impromptu performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the seventh-inning stretch. The players and spectators stood at attention, took off their hats, and sang, giving rise to a tradition that is repeated at almost every professional baseball game in United States today, though it is now performed prior to the first pitch.
By Congressional resolution signed by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States on March 3, 1931. This song, like the British national anthem "God Save the Queen", is known as one of the few national anthems that does not mention the name of the home country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner Spanish:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100000007/full.html German:
http://ingeb.org/songs/thestars.html Latin:
http://ingeb.org/songs/thestars.html Yiddish: http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/vol06/vol06.279
Samoan
http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2006/January/01-26-18.htm Song "To Anacreon in Heaven"
http://ingeb.org/songs/toanacre.html
