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District of Columbia National Guard stand outside the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, after a day of rioting protesters (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
AP In more than 220 years, the US Capitol had seen nothing like it: a roiling mob, forcing its way past its majestic marble columns, disrupting the passage of power, desecrating the seat of the world’s greatest democracy.
But this was far from the first time the Capitol has been scarred by violence.
In 1814, just 14 years after the building opened, British forces in the War of 1812 tried to burn it down. The invaders looted the building first, and then set the southern and northern wings ablaze incinerating the Library of Congress. A sudden rainstorm prevented its total destruction, but the building was left “a most magnificent ruin,” according to architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
Over the centuries since, events have made a mockery of the inscription on the rostrum of the House chamber “Union, Justice, Tolerance, Liberty, Peace.” The building has been bombed several times. There have been shootings. One legislator almost killed another. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bower labeled the Wednesday attack on the U.S. Capitol “terrorism” and said D.C. must have control of its National Guard, not the president. “We must get statehood on the president’s desk within the first 100 days,” Bowser said. “Congress must immediately transfer command of the District of Columbia National Guard from the president of the United States and put it squarely under the command and control of the mayor of the District of Columbia.”
Origin
As an angry pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, leaving behind death and destruction, many wondered if this was the first time such an event had occurred there. While the Capitol had seen violence and destruction before during its more than two centuries-old history, it was nothing quite like the events of 2021.
The riots on Jan. 6, 2021, were the first time an angry armed mob breached the walls of the building and rioted against election proceedings at the incitement of a sitting U.S. president but not the first time it had been violently breached. The last time such an intrusion had occurred was in 1814 by the British armed forces.
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The momentum behind Biden s climate ambitions
Biden speaks at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware on December 19, 2020.
This was excerpted from the December 22 edition of CNN s Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Click here to read past editions and subscribe. (CNN)Welcome back, America.
President-elect Joe Biden s picks for Cabinet and top White House jobs show he intends to be an aggressive and energetic general in the global battle against climate change. Folks, we re in a crisis, he said at the weekend, after a year of raging wildfires, flood and drought. Just like we need to be a unified nation to respond to Covid-19, we need a unified national response to climate change.