The History Channel is currently featuring a rather fascinating series, How The States Got Their Shapes — and a recent episode covered the return of the District’s ten miles square to Virginia, or how “George Washington’s perfect diamond was torn apart.”

They say the terrorist attacks of 2001 on the United States was the first time a foreign force had struck inside the Continental U.S. since the War of 1812 (though there was a Japanese attack on Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1942.). So what of the War of 1812? The History Channel on Sunday is showing a special on “Mr. Madison’s War” including the burning of Washington. In 1814, British forces landed on the Patuxent River…