On this day in 1814 ...

Washington DC was burned down by the British -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

"On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross occupied Washington City and set fire to many public buildings, including the White House and the Capitol, as well as other facilities of the U.S. government.^[3] The attack was in part a retaliation to American actions in the Raid on Port Dover."

Yet somehow because the belligerents where white, these two countries are no longer enemies today.

The real losers the War of 1812 as always - were brown people -

"Historians generally agree that the real losers of the War of 1812 were the Indians (also called "First Nations" in Canada).^[200] American settlers into the Middle West had been repeatedly blocked and threatened by Indian raids before 1812, and that now came to an end. Throughout the war the British had played on terror of the tomahawks and scalping knives of their Indian allies; it worked especially at Hull's surrender at Detroit. By 1813 Americans had killed Tecumseh and broken his coalition of tribes. Jackson then defeated the enemy Indians in the Southwest. Historian John Sugden notes that in both theatres, the Indians' strength had been broken prior to the arrival of the major British forces in 1814.[2"

One wonders if that was the real goal behind the war all along.