Like Francis Scott Key, who wrote the American national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle was also inspired to write the song that would become the national anthem of France in a pique of patriotic fervor. He was quartered in Strasbourg, when one night over dinner it was announced that France declared war against Austria and Prussia. Lisle went home and that night composed the most patriotic lines in French history.

On this day, April 24, in 1792 — or rather on this night Lisle composed  his “Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin” (War Song for the Army of the Rhine).

The song was written out in pamphlet form and given out to the French troops marching on Paris, but it was not called “La Marseillaise” yet. That name would adopted after the march from Paris to Toulouse — the song become quite popular with the volunteer soldiers from the city of Marseille, and was renamed after them.