Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner and why?

The lyric was originally a poem called Defence of Fort McHenry written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. He wrote it after witnessing a British attack on Fort McHenry during the war of 1812.

The melody was originally a song called To Anacreon in Heaven written in 1778 by John Stafford Smith for a London drinking club.

The lyric and melody were put together by Francis Scott Key's brother-in-law Judge Joseph H Nicholson, who first published the lyric as a broadsheet. The current title was applied by Thomas Carr (owner of a Baltimore music shop), who was the first to publish the song with sheet music.