Five Things To Know Today: Aug. 24

Weather: It will be sunny all day on Friday with a light breeze, according to the National Weather Service.

1. Catch Blue Crabs, Minnows, Shrimp & More while exploring the salt pond in Little Compton.

Learn about the history and use of the seine net. Discover what critters live in the shallow waters during this interactive program! Meet in front of The Nature Conservancy's Benjamin Family Environmental Center at 10 a.m. All ages welcome with appropriate supervision.

This is a free event, but there is a parking fee at the town beach.

2. The Senior Community Luncheon will be help today at the Little Compton Community Center at The Commons. Lunch is free and starts at 11:30 a.m.

3. Find your inner peace today at the ABC Studio at Four Courners Fitness on Main Road in Tiverton. Yoga with David starts at 9:30 a.m. 

4. It's time for Kidszumbatomic! Heat to the Little Compton Community Center, 34 Commons today at 3 p.m. Classes cost $5.

5. On this day in 1814, during the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1812, according to History.com.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that President James Madisonand his first lady Dolley 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.

According to the White House Historical Society and Dolley's personal letters, President James Madison eft the White House on Aug. 22 to meet with his generals on the battlefield, just as British troops threatened to enter the capitol. Dolley stayed behind.

Dolley left the next day as British troops closed in on the White House, abandoning the couple's personal belongings and instead saved a full-length Gilbert Stuart portrait of former president George Washington from desecration. Dolley wrote to her sister on the night of August 23 of the difficulty involved in saving the painting. Since the portrait was screwed to the wall, she ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas pulled out and rolled up. Two unidentified "gentlemen from New York" hustled it away for safe-keeping. Unbeknownst to Dolley the portrait was actually a copy of Gilbert Stuart's original.

The task complete, Dolley wrote "and now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it by filling up the road I am directed to take." Dolley left the White House and found her husband at their predetermined meeting place in the middle of a thunderstorm.