--- description: The British Embassy apologized for tweeting a joke about burning down the White House in honor of the 200th anniversary title: The British Embassy apologized for tweeting about burning down the White House image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The British Embassy Apologized For Tweeting About Burning Down the White House by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 25, 2014 3:04 PM CUT by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 25, 2014 3:04 PM CUT Two hundred years ago Sunday, August, 24, when America and the United Kingdom were enmeshed in the War of 1812, some Brits burned the White House to the ground. So how did the British Embassy in America decide to celebrate this bicentennial — which [some historians attribute as the turning point of the war](http://time.com/3154675/white-house-burning-war-1812/ "undefined")? By joking about burning it down again, of course. > [](https://twitter.com/ukinusa/status/503668849750056960) Shortly after realizing that putting sparklers on a White House cake was perhaps in poor taste, The Embassy’s Twitter account apologized for its tone deaf tweet: > [](https://twitter.com/UKinUSA/status/503703891238993920) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3173861/british-embassy-tweet-200th-anniversary-burning-of-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3173861/british-embassy-tweet-200th-anniversary-burning-of-white-house/"},"headline":"The British Embassy Apologized For Tweeting About Burning Down the White House","datePublished":"2014-08-25T15:04:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:43.560Z","description":"Umm… jk?","url":"https://time.com/3173861/british-embassy-tweet-200th-anniversary-burning-of-white-house/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","twitter","Embassy","British"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3173861/british-embassy-tweet-200th-anniversary-burning-of-white-house/","name":"The British Embassy Apologized For Tweeting About Burning Down the White House"}}]}] ```