Today in History
What went down and why you should care.
jun 18 Learn More War of 1812 Begins
The War of 1812 kicked off on this day in—wait for it—1812. It was the first time the United States declared war against somebody—in this case, Britain—and it was unpopular from the start. President Madison barely got enough votes in Congress to go to war. The American army was largely untrained. Oh, and it started with an invasion of Canada. If you're thinking all of this sounds like a bad idea, you're right. Ultimately, the war ended in a tie, with America's greatest victory of the war, at the Battle of New Orleans, coming after the war had already ended. Everybody declared itself the winner, and a peculiar chapter in international conflict came to an appropriately weird end.
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