4 min readImage of the Day for June 29, 2026Two hundred years ago, a battle in the port city of Baltimore inspired the writing of America’s national anthem.NASA Earth ObservatoryJun 29, 2026 Article
View more Images of the Day:
Editor’s note: In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Earth Observatory is revisiting stories about the landscapes that helped shape U.S. history. The images and text on this page were originally published on September 14, 2014. Explore the full collection here.
The song is familiar to every American, but the moment and place where it was composed are less so.
On April 24, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of Baltimore, Maryland, and its harbor. Fort McHenry and its star-shaped ramparts—the place where “that star-spangled banner yet wave[d],” on September 14, 1814—stand at the entrance to the city’s Inner Harbor. The area was a pivotal battleground in the War of 1812.
