Burning of Washington
E627
The Burning of Washington was a British attack during the War of 1812 in which invading forces captured and set fire to multiple U.S. government buildings in the capital, including the presidential mansion.
All labels observed (13)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T16209 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Burning of Washington Context triple: [White House, damagedIn, Burning of Washington]
-
A.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, marking the start of armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen American colonies in April 1775.
-
B.
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a catastrophic urban conflagration that destroyed much of Chicago, killed hundreds, left thousands homeless, and spurred major changes in building codes and city planning.
-
C.
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a 1773 colonial protest in which American colonists, opposing British taxation, boarded ships in Boston Harbor and dumped chests of tea into the water, helping spark the American Revolution.
-
D.
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the surprise Japanese military strike on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, that led to the United States’ entry into World War II.
-
E.
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a massive 1948–1949 Allied operation that supplied West Berlin by air during the Soviet blockade, symbolizing early Cold War tensions and Western resolve.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Burning of Washington Target entity description: The Burning of Washington was a British attack during the War of 1812 in which invading forces captured and set fire to multiple U.S. government buildings in the capital, including the presidential mansion.
-
A.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, marking the start of armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen American colonies in April 1775.
-
B.
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a catastrophic urban conflagration that destroyed much of Chicago, killed hundreds, left thousands homeless, and spurred major changes in building codes and city planning.
-
C.
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a 1773 colonial protest in which American colonists, opposing British taxation, boarded ships in Boston Harbor and dumped chests of tea into the water, helping spark the American Revolution.
-
D.
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the surprise Japanese military strike on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, that led to the United States’ entry into World War II.
-
E.
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a massive 1948–1949 Allied operation that supplied West Berlin by air during the Soviet blockade, symbolizing early Cold War tensions and Western resolve.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (52)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
battle
ⓘ
event in the War of 1812 ⓘ military conflict ⓘ |
| aftermath |
Reconstruction of the Capitol and Presidential Mansion began
ⓘ
Significant damage to federal buildings in Washington, D.C. ⓘ U.S. government temporarily relocated some operations ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Burning of Washington
ⓘ
surface form:
Burning of Washington, D.C.
Burning of Washington ⓘ
surface form:
Sack of Washington
|
| attacker |
British Empire
ⓘ
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ⓘ
surface form:
United Kingdom
|
| belligerent |
United Kingdom
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| cause |
British retaliation for American attacks in Upper Canada
ⓘ
Retaliation for the burning of York (Toronto) ⓘ |
| commander |
George Cockburn
ⓘ
James Madison ⓘ James Monroe ⓘ Robert Ross ⓘ William H. Winder ⓘ |
| conflict | War of 1812 ⓘ |
| continent | North America ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| date | August 24–25, 1814 ⓘ |
| defender |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| endDate | 1814-08-25 ⓘ |
| followedBy |
Battle of Baltimore
ⓘ
Battle of Baltimore ⓘ
surface form:
British attack on Fort McHenry
|
| hasParticipant |
British Army
ⓘ
Royal Navy ⓘ United States Army ⓘ United States militia forces ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
Only time a foreign power has captured and burned the U.S. capital
ⓘ
Symbol of American vulnerability during the War of 1812 ⓘ |
| location | Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| notableAction |
British forces captured the U.S. capital
ⓘ
British forces set fire to major U.S. government buildings ⓘ White House ⓘ
surface form:
Presidential Mansion was burned and gutted
Public records and books were destroyed ⓘ United States Capitol ⓘ
surface form:
United States Capitol was burned
|
| partOf | War of 1812 ⓘ |
| precededBy | Battle of Bladensburg ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Battle of Baltimore
ⓘ
surface form:
Battle of Bladensburg
|
| result | British victory ⓘ |
| startDate | 1814-08-24 ⓘ |
| target |
Library of Congress
ⓘ
Capitol Hill ⓘ
surface form:
Navy Yard facilities in Washington, D.C.
White House ⓘ
surface form:
Presidential Mansion
United States Capitol ⓘ Treasury Building ⓘ
surface form:
United States Treasury building
United States War Department building ⓘ White House ⓘ |
| year | 1814 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Burning of Washington Description of subject: The Burning of Washington was a British attack during the War of 1812 in which invading forces captured and set fire to multiple U.S. government buildings in the capital, including the presidential mansion.
Referenced by (28)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Burning of Washington, D.C.
this entity surface form:
Sack of Washington
this entity surface form:
Burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814
this entity surface form:
burning of Washington, D.C.
this entity surface form:
Burning of the White House
this entity surface form:
Burning of the United States Capitol
this entity surface form:
British attack on Washington, D.C. (1814)
this entity surface form:
British campaign against Washington, D.C.
this entity surface form:
British occupation of Washington, D.C. (1814)
this entity surface form:
British raid on Washington, D.C.
this entity surface form:
British capture of Washington, D.C.
this entity surface form:
Burning of Washington (1814)
this entity surface form:
British campaign against Washington, D.C.