The causes of many historical riots lie in social and political inequality, poverty, and racial discrimination. But periodically flared up and unusual uprisings.
Introducing you the most unusual riots in history.
3. Riot at the University of Paris
On March 6, 1229, students at the University of Paris celebrated Fat Tuesday in a tavern. The heated debate over the bill gradually turned into a fight, because of which young people were kicked out of the institution. The next day, a large group of students returned to the tavern. After beating the owner and destroying the inn, the crowd poured into the street and began to trash the shops.
The Parisians turned for protection first to the spiritual, then to the secular authorities. Complicating matters was that at that time students at the University of Paris studied theology and were protected by the Catholic Church. However, the regent of France demanded to teach the Buyans a lesson. The city guard found a group of students and killed several. In response, teachers already demanded that the authorities punish the city police, and, having been refused, started a riot. This went on for two years until the Pope intervened, publishing the bull “Mother of all sciences.” In it, the university was guaranteed personal papal protection, it was freed from the local secular and church authorities.
2. Riot over the balloon
Among the most unusual riots in the history of Europe, an event involving the British balloonist Henry Coxwell was included. In 1862, he arrived in the city of Leicester (Great Britain) with his newest balloon. Such an event gathered a crowd of 50 thousand people. They literally stuck around the ball and demanded that Coxwell immediately demonstrate the capabilities of his "brainchild." People who bought tickets to ride the ball were also impatient. The balloonist himself in vain asked the inhabitants of Leicester to step aside, fearing that the gondola, torn off the ground, would touch someone. Meanwhile, rumors spread throughout the crowd that the ball was a dummy, and the real one was much larger. After making sure that all his requests were in vain, and hearing insults against him, Coxwell began to blow hot gas out of the ball.
This led the onlookers into a rage. They began to destroy the aircraft, ruthlessly shredding the fabric and destroying the gondola. And Coxwell was only miraculously saved by one of the few police officers guarding the event. Subsequently, ashamed of their actions, the townspeople threw a balloon to a new ball. But the memory of one of the most unusual historical riots remained.
1. Riot against doctors in New York
The first place in the list of the most unusual uprisings in history is occupied by “anti-medical” protests. At the end of the 18th century, there were no laws in New York on how and where to take bodies for medical student practice. This did not suit many people, because the idea of cutting corpses sounded terribly enough for an ordinary citizen. Rumor has it that students steal corpses from a cemetery. Fear and anger about these rumors led to the events of April 16, 1788.
There are various versions of how the riot began, but all the stories revolve around a severed arm and a group of boys playing near a New York hospital. According to one version, they saw a hand that was drying on the window. According to another version, a medical student waved a severed hand out of the window at the children. One of the boys recognized in the limb the hand of his recently deceased mother. He ran home and told his father what he had seen. The man went to the cemetery and, digging out his wife’s coffin, found it empty. He led an angry mob to the hospital.
Having burst into the hospital, people discovered fresh corpses and parts of the bodies of men and women. Disgusted and horrified, the townspeople pulled the finds onto the street and set them on fire.
All hospital staff were taken to prison for their own protection. The next morning, the crowd began to burst into the houses of doctors in search of new corpses for experiments, but found nothing. After that, a group of 5,000 people, armed with bricks, stones and sticks, went to the prison and demanded that they be given to them by doctors. The police were forced to open fire on the crowd. As a result, about 20 people died.
After the riot, a law was passed on the provision of corpses of criminals for medical research.
