Mike Cook
Two of America’s most iconic national symbols celebrate anniversaries in September.
Tuesday September 14th marks the 208th anniversary of Francis Scott Keys’ Defense of Fort M’Henry, which was to become The Star-Spangled Banner. (It became the national anthem on March 3, 1931.)
Key (1779-1843), then a 35-year-old lawyer from Maryland and Washington, DC, wrote the poem when he heard the bombing of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore, September 13-14, 1814 five Observed for months before the end of the War of 1812. Key was held captive by the British until after the battle because he knew of the British plans to attack Baltimore. Key had met with British officers on a prisoner exchange.
The British composer John Stafford Smith (1750-1836) wrote the music for “The Anacreontic Song” in the 1770s for the Gentlemen’s Club of amateur musicians, of which he was a member in London. The melody was adopted for the Star-Spangled Banner shortly after Key’s poem was written.
Thirty-nine delegates (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton) met for the last time in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 to sign the document they had drafted for nearly four months.
Friday 17th September marks the 234th anniversary of the signing. The constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire approved it and supported the nine states required for ratification. Delaware was the first state to ratify the constitution on December 7, 1787; Rhode Island was the last, May 29, 1790. All 13 states voted to ratify.
The Bill of Rights, the first 10 constitutional amendments, was not approved until December 15, 1791.
Before the Constitution was adopted, the United States and its nearly 4 million people were ruled by the Articles of Confederation, approved by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and which came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states was.
The US Constitution is the oldest functioning constitution in the world. In second place is the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway, which came into force almost 26 years later, in 1814. The Netherlands has the third oldest (1815), Belgium the fourth (1831) and Denmark the fifth (1849).
New Mexico was known as Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1787 and was a province of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Its Spanish governor was Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (1736-88).
New Mexico was still under Spanish rule in 1814. The Spanish governors that year were José Manrique and Alberto Maynez, the 60th and 61st Spanish governors of New Mexico. The last Spanish governor of New Mexico left office in 1822 when the Republic of Mexico (including what was to become New Mexico) gained independence from Spain.
Originally a province of the Estado Interno del Norte (its capital was Chihuahua, Mexico), New Mexico became a separate territory on July 6, 1824.
New Mexico became the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912.
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