Month: June 2026

In August 1814, British forces captured Washington, D.C., and set fire to the President’s House (now the White House) in retaliation for the American burning of York. The event shocked the nation, but the building was swiftly rebuilt, and the white paint used to cover the scorch marks helped cement its lasting name.

In August 1814, British forces occupied Spanish Pensacola in West Florida as a staging base for operations against the United States, but Andrew Jackson’s army captured the town in November 1814, forcing the British to withdraw and eliminating a strategic threat.