The “Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem, or national song, of the United States. The words are from a poem that was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. He watched a night-time battle between Great Britain and America that took place in …

The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and is located in New York on Liberty Island. It is a very tall statue of a woman holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet with the date July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals in her left hand. Her crown has …

The Pledge of Allegiance is a promise of loyalty to the United States. The first version of the Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the explorer, Christopher Columbus, in the …

The Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government Web site does not ask for or collect personal, individually-identifiable information, like names and addresses, from its users. We do use software that tracks the number of visitors to the site, but this software …

In this Learning Adventure, we’ll learn what voting is and who can vote. Voting is the process that American citizens use to choose our leaders, decide on our laws, or change our laws. Sometimes this is called casting a ballot. Citizens vote during an …