Many historic riots are rooted in social and political inequality, poverty, and racial discrimination. But occasionally unusual uprisings broke out.
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. A heated discussion about the account gradually escalated into a fight, because of which the young people were thrown 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 out into the street and began to smash the shops.
The Parisians turned for protection first to the spiritual, then to the secular authorities. To complicate matters, at the time, students at the University of Paris were studying theology and were protected by the Catholic Church. However, the regent of France demanded that the brawlers be taught a lesson. The city guards found a group of students and killed several. In response, the teachers already demanded that the authorities punish the city police, and, having received a refusal, began a riot. This continued for two years, until the Pope intervened, issuing the bull "Mother of all sciences". In it, the university was guaranteed personal papal protection, it was freed from local secular and church authority.
2. Balloon riot
Among the most unusual riots in European history was an event involving British balloonist Henry Coxwell. In 1862, he came to Leicester (UK) 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 balloon were also impatient. The balloonist himself vainly asked the inhabitants of Leicester to make way, fearing that the gondola, having lifted off the ground, would hit someone. Meanwhile, rumors spread through the crowd that the ball was a fake, and the real one was much larger. Convinced that all his requests were in vain, and having heard the insults in his address, Coxwell began to release hot gas from the balloon.
This infuriated onlookers. They proceeded to destroy the aircraft, mercilessly shredding the fabric and destroying the gondola. And Coxwell was only miraculously rescued by one of the few police officers guarding the event. Subsequently, ashamed of their actions, the townspeople threw themselves into a new balloon for the balloonist. But the memory of one of the most unusual historical riots remains.
1. Riot against doctors in New York
Topping the list of the most unusual uprisings in history are the "anti-medical" protests. At the end of the 18th century, New York City had no laws on how or where bodies should be taken for medical student practice. This did not suit many people, because the idea of cutting corpses sounded creepy enough for an ordinary citizen. It was rumored that students were stealing corpses from the cemetery. Fear and anger over these rumors led to the events of April 16, 1788.
There are various versions of how the riot started, but the stories all revolve around a severed hand and a group of boys playing outside a New York City hospital. According to one version, they saw a hand drying on the window. According to another version, a medical student waved a severed hand to the children from the window. One of the boys recognized the limb as 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, having dug up his wife's coffin, found it empty. He led an angry crowd to the hospital.
Bursting into the hospital, people found fresh corpses and body parts of men and women. Disgusted and horrified, the townspeople dragged the finds out into the street and set them on fire.
All hospital staff were taken to the prison for their own protection. The next morning, the crowd began to break into the doctors' homes 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 doctors be handed over to them. The police were forced to open fire on the crowd. As a result, about 20 people died.
After the riot, a law was passed to provide the corpses of criminals for medical research.