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Today in History, September 14th

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became the national anthem. Plus McKinley's death and the first gravitational waves.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published September 14, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

September 14 is best known for 1814, when Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The date also saw President William McKinley die of his wounds in 1901 and scientists make the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

The big story: Francis Scott Key writes “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)

Key was a Maryland lawyer, not a poet by trade, and he was in Baltimore harbor on an errand. A few weeks earlier, British troops had burned the White House and the Capitol in Washington, and Baltimore was next on their list. Key had gone to win the release of a friend, Dr. William Beanes, who was being held by the British. The deal came with a catch: neither man could leave until the attack on Fort McHenry was over. So Key spent a long night watching the bombardment from a ship roughly eight miles off. When daylight came on September 14, the American flag was still up over the fort, and the British gave up. Key wrote a poem about it, first titled “The Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Newspapers printed it, and it was paired with the tune of a British song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” President Woodrow Wilson ordered it played at official events in 1916, and it became the national anthem on March 3, 1931.

More events on September 14

Year	What happened
1812	Napoleon’s Grande Armée marched into Moscow and found it nearly empty. Fires broke out that night and destroyed more than two-thirds of the city.
1847	U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City, the decisive blow of the Mexican-American War.
1901	President William McKinley died in Buffalo, New York, eight days after he was shot at the Pan-American Exposition.
1959	A Soviet rocket crashed onto the Moon, the first human-made object to reach the lunar surface.
1975	Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity, making her the first American-born saint.
1982	Princess Grace of Monaco, the former film star Grace Kelly, died a day after her car went off a mountain road near Monte Carlo.
1994	Major League Baseball called off the rest of its strike-shortened season, leaving the sport without a World Series for the first time since 1904.
2015	The twin LIGO detectors in Louisiana and Washington State picked up gravitational waves for the first time, from a collision of two black holes some 1.3 billion years in the past. The find was announced in February 2016.
2015	Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old in Irving, Texas, was arrested after a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb. The case drew national attention and an invitation to the White House.

Born on September 14

1879: Margaret Sanger, founder of the U.S. birth control movement, born in Corning, New York.
1965: Dmitry Medvedev, president of Russia from 2008 to 2012, born in Leningrad.
1973: Nas, rapper behind the album Illmatic, born in Brooklyn, New York.
1983: Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter of Back to Black, born in London.