Presidents' Day at the White House
Just how does the president celebrate Presidents’ Day? Throughout the more than 200-year history of the White House, presidents themselves ha...
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Significant Events
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The Japanese Mission of 1860
During the 1850s Japan gradually began to discard its isolationist foreign policy of sakoku (“locked country”) and began opening some of i...
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The Octagon
On September 8, 1814, the Madisons moved into the Octagon, second in size only to the burned President's House, and the only...
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The Navy Yard, Treasury Department & Other Buildings
Washington awoke to a humid, cloudy day as an occupied city on August 25. Cockburn and Captain John Wainwright of Cockburn's...
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The Naval War of 1812
Britain's navy began its war in North Atlantic waters with a crushing advantage over the United States in numbers of...
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The Battle of New Orleans
Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans on December 1, 1814, and took charge of the city's defense, commanding that waterways be obstructed...
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Tensions in the Capital
President James Madison arrived back in Washington about 5:00 p.m. on August 27, 1814 and took up temporary lodgings at the F...
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Stephen Pleasonton Saves the State Papers
With news of the British force's approach, a senior State Department clerk, Stephen Pleasonton, swung into action, buying rough but...
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Saving the Washington Portrait
Many Washington residents, fearing the rumored British attack, had packed what they could on wagons or set out on foot...
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Rebuilding the White House and U.S. Capitol
On August 24, 1814, British forces marched into Washington, D.C. and set fire to the White House, the Capitol, and other...
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The Christmas Eve West Wing Fire of 1929
On Christmas Eve 1929 the White House experienced its most powerful fire since the British torched the Executive Mansion 115 years earlier....
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Sicilian Salvador Catalano
Few people today know the story of a Sicilian-born sailor named Salvadore Catalano who became an early American naval hero....