What is the name of the national anthem?

Why this is the answer

The answer is "The Star-Spangled Banner," and the title itself tells you what the song is about. A banner is a flag, and "spangled" refers to its stars, which look as if they are shining in the night sky. Put together, it is a song about the flag. The flag in question flew over Fort McHenry, which guarded the city of Baltimore, Maryland, during the War of 1812. On the night of September 13, 1814, British warships bombarded the fort. Francis Scott Key, an American who watched the attack, feared the fort would fall. When the sun came up the next morning he looked again and saw the flag still flying, proof that the British had not won. He immediately wrote a poem and called it "Defence of Fort M'Henry." Those lines became the words of the anthem, which is why the first verse asks whether the flag is still there at dawn and talks about its broad stripes and bright stars. The song had a long career before it became official. Congress passed a law naming it the national anthem in 1931, well over a century after Key wrote it. The background also links to other parts of the civics test. The War of 1812 is one of the wars of the 1800s you can name when asked, and James Madison, who appears in a separate question, was President while it was fought. A wrong answer that sounds right is another patriotic song, such as "America the Beautiful" or "God Bless America." Another mix-up is the Pledge of Allegiance, which is a promise of loyalty rather than a song, and which everyone attending a naturalization ceremony is asked to say. If the title slips your mind, picture the flag over the fort at sunrise, still there after a night of shelling, and the name will follow.