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“The Stars and Stripes Forever” is an American patriotic march written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896. Since 1987, by an act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America.

History

In his 1928 autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day, 1896. Sousa was on board White Star Line’s Teutonic on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band . He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States.  It was first performed at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on May 14, 1897, and was immediately greeted with enthusiasm.  Following an Act of Congress in 1987, it was officially adopted as the national march of the United States of America.