Britain apologizes for tweet marking 200 years since White House burned

[Thəorətic Muslim]

Britain apologizes for tweet marking 200 years since White House burned
By Mark Bixler, CNN
updated 1:42 PM EDT, Mon August 25, 2014

British redcoats burned the White House and other buildings in Washington 200 years ago this month.
a Huffington Post piece by Patrick Davies, its deputy ambassador to the United States.

(CNN) -- Who knew the War of 1812 could inflame passions in the age of Twitter?

The British Embassy in Washington has apologized after tweeting a photo marking the 200th anniversary of British troops burning the White House on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812.

The photo shows a cake featuring the White House, a few sparklers and the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack. Included in the caption: "Only sparklers this time!"

Not everyone was amused.

One person said on Twitter found the post "in extremely POOR TASTE." Another asked: "What the hell? A commemoration?"

Whereupon the right honorable Embassy sought to make amends. It published a "we're sorry" tweet noting that it "meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today." It also linked to a Huffington Post piece by Patrick Davies, its deputy ambassador to the United States.

British Embassy

✔ @UKinUSA​

Apologies for earlier Tweet. We meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-davies/torch-of-friendship_b_5699220.html …

8:42 PM - 24 Aug 2014
Torch of Friendship

Washington DC. Late August, after sunset. A brigade of foreign troops marches unhindered down Pennsylvania Avenue, leaving the U.S. Capitol in flames at their backs. When they reach the White House,...
[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Roboto, Segoe UI, Calibri, sans-serif]HuffPost Politics[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Roboto, Segoe UI, Calibri, sans-serif] [/FONT]@HuffPostPol[/FONT]

He noted that the countries are "closer today than ever," the redcoats' torching of the White House 200 years ago notwithstanding.

"Far from fighting each other, our soldiers, sailors and airmen train together, deploy together and recuperate together," he wrote.

"Needless to say, we've put the events of August 1814 far behind us."

 

[VCheng]

Why do you think it is called the "White House"?

 

[Dubious]

Yup friends and pets of each other at face value where spying becomes necessary every now and then

 

[Jungibaaz]

@Informant

 

[Oldman1]

Why do you think it is called the "White House"?

Because only white people can live in the White House.

 

[VCheng]

Because only white people can live in the White House.

No. It is called the White House after it was repainted in white to hide the black soot and scorch marks from when the British set it alight. The name itself commemorates this history of both the building and the young country at that time.

 

[Oldman1]

No. It is called the White House after it was repainted in white to hide the black soot and scorch marks from when the British set it alight. The name itself commemorates this history of both the building and the young country at that time.

Oh really? What did the "White" House look like before it was burned? What was the color?

 

[VCheng]

Oh really? What did the "White" House look like before it was burned? What was the color?

It was gray. It had been whitewashed before too, but the name White House was popularized after the British torched it and it was repainted white when repairs were completed over three years. The name was finally officially formalized in 1901.

 

[Oldman1]

It was gray. It had been whitewashed before too, but the name White House was popularized after the British torched it and it was repainted white. The name was finally officially formalized in 1901.

Got pics or sources before the burning to provide that it was gray?

 

[VCheng]

Got pics or sources before the burning to provide that it was gray?

It was made from gray sandstone that was unpainted in the initial years.

 

[Mugwop]

They are very critical of America. I don't know what their problem is

 

[VCheng]

They are very critical of America. I don't know what their problem is

Some over there still think of USA as "the colonies".

 

[Oldman1]

It was made from gray sandstone that was unpainted in the initial years.

Naming conventions
The building was originally referred to variously as the "President's Palace", "Presidential Mansion", or "President's House".[15] The earliest evidence of the public calling it the "White House" was recorded in 1811.[16] A myth emerged that during the rebuilding of the structure after the Burning of Washington, white paint was applied to mask the burn damage it had suffered,[17] giving the building its namesake hue.[18] The name "Executive Mansion" was used in official contexts until President Theodore Roosevelt established the formal name by having "White House–Washington" engraved on the stationery in 1901.[19][20] The current letterhead wording and arrangement "The White House" with the word "Washington" centered beneath goes back to the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[20]

Although it was not completed until some years after the presidency of George Washington, it is also speculated that the name of the traditional residence of the President of the United States may have derived from Martha Washington's home, White House Plantation in Virginia, where the nation's first President had courted the First Lady in the mid-18th century.[21]

The legend does not correspond to historical fact, however. The President's House had been given a coat of whitewash as early as 1798 in order to protect its locally-quarried sandstone against the deterioriation caused by winter freezes, and from then on white paint was used for the exterior. Moreover, references to the building as the "White House" antedate the War of 1812. As early as the spring of 1811, Francis James Jackson, the former British minister to the United States, wrote that his successor would "act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that may issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington." White House curators cite similar contemporary evidence:
There is a Washington myth that people didn't start calling the house the White House until it was painted white to conceal the scorch marks left when the British burned it to its walls in 1814.

Not so, says the office of White House curator Betty Monkman. She and her staff have uncovered many references to "the White House" well before the British marched in.

On March 18, 1812, for example, a Massachusetts congressman wrote his wife: "There is much trouble at the White House, as we call it, I mean the President's."
It is true that the term "White House" came into more general use after 1817, when new construction on the residence was completed (nearly all of the interior had been destroyed by the 1814 fire) and the structure was given a coat of oil-based white paint, but that phenomenon was merely an extension of a practice that had started well before 1814.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/whitehouse.asp#afEabmgv7C9AwXqH.99snopes.com: White House

 

[Mugwop]

Because only white people can live in the White House.

 

[Oldman1]

Some over there still think of USA as "the colonies".

Can you imagine if U.S. was still a colony of the British Empire? Remember that they own Canada as well.

Post-segregation my friend. Look how old the pic is.