On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812 between the United
States and England, British troops entered Washington, D.C.
and burned the White House in retaliation for the American
attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1813.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that
President James Madison and his first lady Dolley (below) 
had already fled to safety in Maryland.

Soldiers reportedly sat down to eat a meal made of leftover
food from the White House scullery using White House
dishes and silver before ransacking the presidential 
mansion and setting it ablaze.


 

                              Alice Sanger (1864 – 1941)

President Benjamin Harrison welcomes Alice Sanger as the first
female White House staffer on January 2, 1890.

President Benjamin Harrison (1833 – 1901)

On December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge touched a button
and lights up the first national Christmas tree to grace the White
House grounds.

The balsam fir came from Coolidge’s home state of Vermont and
stood 48 feet tall. Several musical groups performed at the tree-
lighting ceremony.

President Calvin Coolidge and his wife First Lady Grace.

John Adams, the Founding Father whose intellect, passion and
political philosophy fueled American independence and gave
shape to constitutional governments now found around the
world, became the first president to live in the White House on
this day in history, Nov. 1, 1800.

"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House
and all that shall hereafter inhabit it," Adams wrote to first lady
Abigail, who had yet to arrive, on his second night in the new
executive mansion.

Paintings of former U.S. President John Adams, right, and
his wife Abigail Adams, are displayed at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

President John F. Kennedy introduced a new era of White
House communications when he hosted the first live
televised presidential press conference on this day in
history, Jan. 25, 1961.