The British Embassy in Washington D.C. offered an official apology this week after tweeting a surprisingly cheeky comment about the 200th anniversary of the British burning the White House. Apparently, the Brits held a barbecue and created a lovely cake to commemorate the time they torched our commander-in-chief's home during the War of 1812.
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of burning the White House. Only sparklers this time! pic.twitter.com/QIDBQTBmmL
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) August 24, 2014Thousands of Americans questioned the tweets' intention and responded to the embassy on Twitter. Only two days prior to the barbecue, Patrick Davies, the embassy's Deputy Head of the Mission, detailed the scale of the disaster in the Huffington Post
Washington, D.C. 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, the soldiers break in to find a lavish banquet laid out on the dining table. As they devour the feast, one of them sneaks upstairs to the master bedroom and steals one of the president's shirts. Their dinner consumed, the soldiers pile the expensive dining chairs on the table, retreat outside, smash the windows and throw in burning torches. The resulting column of flame and smoke can be seen for miles around.
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Only an hour after the first tweet, the British Embassy claimed they were actually celebrating that the UK-US have a "#specialrelationship & work together shoulder to shoulder across the globe. #WarOf1812#UKUSrelations"
One hour after the second tweet, they offered an official apology:
Apologies for earlier Tweet. We meant to mark an event in history & celebrate our strong friendship today http://t.co/gs3heJDMzt
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) August 25, 2014
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