Irving Berlin was born on this day in history, May 11, 1888. The composer would go on to write 800 songs, many of them American classics, after starting his career as a boy singing in the streets.

Berlin himself understood exactly what was going on, telling one of his biographers: "There is a cynicism about flag-waving and patriotism until something happens. 'God Bless America,' for instance.

God bless America/My home sweet home He folds that nicely into the phrasing and the melody, so it goes by without calling much attention to itself.

K ellyanne Conway, the former Senior Counselor to the President, made a major American-themed blunder on Fox News' The Five ...

Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America” as a peace prayer. That means it’s a request, written in hope. It asks that America may eventually become blessed, not that it already is. And “blessed” doesn’t ...

Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “God Bless America” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership ...

'God Bless America' by Irving Berlin There are few versions of this song patriots can choose from, including the original written in 1918 by Irving Berlin, which he later revised.

Who walks away from $10 million? Irving Berlin, the Russian-born composer of “God Bless America,” did, says Bob Greene ...

Irving Berlin’s ‘God Bless America’ Turns 100 A century later, Irving Berlin's wartime song is as popular as ever Irving Berlin aboard the USS Arkansas, July 25, 1944. (photo: Register Files) ...

Berlin first concocted “God Bless America” in 1918 as a chorus to one of his musicals, then exhumed and revised it for Kate Smith in 1938 in advance of the second big war of the last century.