On This Day: Wednesday September 14, 2005 This is the 257th day of the year, with 108 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: Star-Spangled Banner The lyrics of the "Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States, were written by Francis Scott Key, a lawyer. He wrote the lyrics after watching the British attack Fort McHenry, Maryland, in 1814, during the War of 1812. The melody was taken from "To Anacreon in Heaven," a drinking song of the Anacreontic Society (of London) that was written by the British composer John Stafford Smith. Key's words were first published in a broadside in 1814 under the title "Defense of Fort M'Henry." The song's title was changed when it appeared in sheet-music form later the same year. After a century of general use, the four-stanza song was officially adopted as the national anthem by act of Congress in 1931. Holidays Bolivia: public holiday. Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador: Independence Day. Events 1741 - George Friedrich Handel completed "The Messiah." 1812 - French emperor Napoleon entered Moscow, but found it deserted. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving army out of Moscow. The Grande Armée finally escaped Russia, having suffered a loss of over 400,000 men during the disastrous invasion. 1814 - Francis Scott Key was inspired to write a poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" when he witnesses an attack on Baltimore by a British fleet and the bombing of Fort McHenry. It later became the national anthem of the United States. 1862 - At the Battle of South Mountain and Battle Crampton's Gap, Maryland Union troops smashed into the Confederates as they closed in on what became the Antietam battleground. 1911 - Russian Premier Piotr Stolypin was mortally wounded in an assassination attempt at the Kiev opera house. 1936 - The first prefrontal lobotomy was performed in attempt to relieve depression and anxiety, by Dr. Walter Freeman in Washington, D.C. 1940 - Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. 1948 - Groundbreaking ceremony took place in New York for the United Nations' world headquarters. 1959 - Soviet space probe Luna Two became the first manmade object to reach the Moon as it impacted the lunar surface. 1960 - Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia formed OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). 1975 - Pope Paul the Sixth declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint. She founded the United States' first religious order, the Sisters of Mercy of St. Joseph. Births 1769 - Baron Freidrich von Humbolt, German naturalist and explorer who made the first isothermic and isobaric maps 1849 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist who studied conditioned reflexes. 1864 - Lord Robert Cecil, a founder of the League of Nations, its president 1923-1945. 1867 - Charles Dana Gibson, American artist, illustrator, and originator of the "Gibson Girl." 1879 - Margaret Sanger, American nurse who founded Planned Parenthood and proponent of birth control. 1898 - Hal B. Wallis, American film producer. Deaths 1321 - Dante Alighieri, Italian author, poet, philosopher, and political thinker. 1638 - John Harvard, New England colonist who left his library and half of his estate to Cambridge College. In his honor, the name was changed to Harvard College. 1901 - William McKinley, 25th President of the United States of America, assassinated. 1927 - Isadora Duncan, American modern dance pioneer. 1982 - Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly American actress Grace Kelly. 1982 - Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, by a bomb. 1984 - Janet Gaynor, American actress.