The Star-Spangled Banner
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50 free The Star-Spangled Banner trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Star-Spangled Banner started as a poem by an eyewitness to a bombardment, was fitted to a tune borrowed from across the Atlantic, and took more than a century to become the official national anthem of the United States. Along the way it collected a surprising amount of history, from the enormous flag that inspired it to the long argument over whether ordinary people can actually sing it. This quiz covers the whole story: the battle and the poet, the flag and the people who made and kept it, the melody's unlikely origins, the campaign in Congress, and the etiquette that grew up around the song. It also revisits the performances people still talk about, the stirring ones and the disasters, at ballparks, concerts, protests and championship games. The questions suit classrooms, patriotic holidays, family game nights and anyone curious about the American national anthem. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and the full set can be played online or printed.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was the day job of the amateur poet who wrote the words of The Star-Spangled Banner?
Lawyer
A lawyer for four decades, he argued many cases before the Supreme Court and as a young man had nearly become an Episcopal priest instead.
Q 02Which Red Sox pitcher threw a shutout in the 1918 World Series opener, when a band struck up The Star-Spangled Banner?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth won Game 1 on the mound, and the band played the song during the seventh-inning stretch because the country was at war.
Q 03The flag that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner was so large that its makers spread it out on the floor of what?
A brewery
A brewery lent its malt house once the day's work was done, and the women often stitched there on the floor until midnight.
Q 04Which amateur poet wrote the words of The Star-Spangled Banner after watching a British bombardment from a ship?
Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key had sailed out to negotiate a prisoner's release, and the British kept him offshore until the attack was over.
Q 05Which singer's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl, during the Gulf War, became a hit single?
Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston's version charted twice, climbing into the top ten when it was reissued after the September 11 attacks.
Q 06Which guitarist's distorted instrumental take on The Star-Spangled Banner became a defining moment of Woodstock in 1969?
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix, a U.S. Army veteran, used feedback to mimic falling bombs and told critics he had played it simply because he was American.
Q 07The sight of a huge flag still flying over which Baltimore stronghold inspired the words of The Star-Spangled Banner?
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry is still where each new design of the U.S. flag flies first, including the first official 49- and 50-star versions.
Q 08Which institution has kept the original Star-Spangled Banner flag since the family that owned it gave it away in 1912?
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian received it from stockbroker Eben Appleton, grandson of the fort's commander, who had been keeping it in a New York bank vault.
Q 09Which NFL quarterback began kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner in 2016 to protest police brutality?
Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick first sat on the bench, then switched to kneeling after talking with a retired Green Beret, as a more respectful gesture.
Q 10Where did Elizabeth II have a Guards band play The Star-Spangled Banner in the days after the September 11 attacks?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace heard it during the Changing of the Guard, and that same week the Queen sang along at a memorial service in St Paul's Cathedral.
Q 11The British attack on Baltimore that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner was part of which war?
War of 1812
The War of 1812 brought British ships that shelled the harbor fort for 25 hours, yet only four men of its garrison were killed.
Q 12Which comedian's screeching Star-Spangled Banner at a 1990 San Diego Padres game offended even the U.S. president?
Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Barr capped it by spitting and grabbing her crotch like a ballplayer while the crowd heckled her.
Q 13Weeks before the attack that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner, British troops set fire to which American city?
Washington
Washington lost both the Capitol and the White House to the flames, the only time since the Revolutionary War that a foreign army has occupied the U.S. capital.
Q 21Which president signed the 1931 law that finally made The Star-Spangled Banner the official U.S. national anthem?
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover's signature ended a long wait: a Baltimore congressman had already watched six earlier anthem bills fail.
Q 22On what did the author of The Star-Spangled Banner scribble his first lines aboard ship?
The back of a letter
The back of a letter from his pocket held the first draft, and he finished the poem at a Baltimore hotel once the British let him go.
Q 23Which Baltimore widow was paid $405.90 to sew the huge flag that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner?
Mary Pickersgill
Q 14Under U.S. federal law, how should civilians stand while The Star-Spangled Banner is played?
Right hand over the heart
Right hand over the heart is only a recommendation: the code carries no penalty, so ignoring it breaks no law.
Q 15Which pop singer apologized after singing the wrong words to The Star-Spangled Banner before Super Bowl XLV in 2011?
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera repeated an earlier line in place of the fourth one, then explained that she had got lost in the moment.
Q 16At what time of day did the author of The Star-Spangled Banner finally see the flag still flying over the fort?
Dawn
Dawn ended a night of guessing, because once the shelling stopped he had no way of knowing which side had won until the sky lightened.
Q 17Where were the 1968 Olympics at which two American sprinters raised gloved fists while The Star-Spangled Banner played?
Mexico City
Mexico City's 200-meter medal ceremony also featured Australian silver medalist Peter Norman, who wore a human rights badge in support.
Q 18A 2006 Star-Spangled Banner recording featuring Pitbull and Wyclef Jean stirred debate for being sung in which language?
Spanish
Spanish was the language of Nuestro Himno, whose first verse drew on a translation the U.S. Bureau of Education itself had commissioned in 1919.
Q 19Which Hollywood film composer wrote a new arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner for its 200th anniversary in 2014?
John Williams
John Williams, the composer of the Jaws and Indiana Jones scores, conducted its premiere at the Fourth of July concert on the U.S. Capitol lawn that year.
Q 20Which pop star sang The Star-Spangled Banner at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in January 2021?
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga wore a custom Schiaparelli gown and brooch, eight years after she had changed the anthem's last word at a New York pride rally.
Mary Pickersgill finished the job in about seven weeks, helped by her daughter, two nieces and a 13-year-old indentured servant named Grace Wisher.
Q 24The Star-Spangled Banner flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes because which two states had joined the original 13?
Vermont and Kentucky
Vermont and Kentucky each earned a stripe as well as a star, which made this the only official U.S. flag design without thirteen stripes.
Q 25Why is the original Star-Spangled Banner flag about eight feet shorter today than when it flew in 1814?
Pieces went as souvenirs
Pieces went as souvenirs for decades, handed out by the commander's family, and one of the fifteen stars left the same way and has never been traced.
Q 26The melody of The Star-Spangled Banner was borrowed from which song of a London gentlemen's music club?
To Anacreon in Heaven
To Anacreon in Heaven honored an ancient Greek poet of love and wine, and the anthem's lyricist had already borrowed its tune for an 1805 song.
Q 27Which blind singer-guitarist caused an uproar with a slow, bluesy Star-Spangled Banner at the 1968 World Series?
José Feliciano
José Feliciano's recording still climbed to number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first time the anthem had ever reached that chart.
Q 28Which soul singer performed a famously relaxed Star-Spangled Banner at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game?
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye sang over a studio backing tape played from the stands, and his performance was the first video VH1 aired when the channel launched.
Q 29Which song with words by Katharine Lee Bates was a leading rival to The Star-Spangled Banner for national anthem?
America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful began as a poem titled Pikes Peak, and a 1920s contest to find it new music ended without a winner, so the borrowed hymn tune stayed.
Q 30A line in the rarely sung fourth verse of The Star-Spangled Banner closely matches which official U.S. motto?
In God We Trust
In God We Trust became the national motto in 1956, after supporters in Congress pointed to the anthem's closing verse as a precedent.