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podcast transcript
Most riots stem from serious grievances, whether over politics, poverty, religion, or oppression.
Some have changed cities, some have embarrassed governments, and some remain almost impossible to explain.
Violence erupted for reasons so strange, unexpected and absurd that it was almost unbelievable.
Learn more about the strangest riots in history in this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Riots have occurred throughout recorded human history. It’s not very common, and in some places it’s very rare, but it does appear occasionally.
Riots often occur due to social and economic discontent. Sometimes sports teams are just about winning championships.
Previous episodes have covered the Plum Pudding Riots at West Point, the St. Scholastica Day Riots at Oxford, the Nottingham Cheese Riots, and the Nica Riots that nearly destroyed the city of Constantinople in 532.
If you look back on the history of riots, there have been far more bizarre riots than those caused by cheese and plum pudding.
In this episode, I want to cover some of the strangest riots in history and their causes.
Let’s start with the one that probably evokes the strangest visual effect. Toronto Circus Riots of 1855.
This 1855 riot in Toronto, Canada, involved members of SB Howes’ Star Troupe Menagerie & Circus, a touring American show.
The group has already performed two shows in the city, featuring clowns, acrobats, exotic animals and everything related to the circus. The show was a major draw attracting people to the growing city of Toronto.
Toronto in the mid-1850s was different from the city we know today. It was still a pioneer town. This meant there were more businesses like pubs. The city of 40,000 people had a saloon on almost every block, as well as hundreds of beer stores and brothels.
This is related to the circus riot incident. That’s because the circus performers decided to join Toronto’s nightlife after their work was done. One group that hit town were the clowns.
The clowns decided to go to a brothel on King and John Street near St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto. It was a prospect that either scared or delighted the women who worked there.
But their pleasant evening did not go as planned. Members of the Hook & Ladder Firefighting Company were there when the clowns arrived.
To understand why this group was there, you have to understand Toronto firefighting in the 1850s.
Firefighting back then was very different from modern firefighting. Instead of receiving support from local governments, individual fire departments competed with each other to extinguish the fire first.
The firefighters at Hook & Ladder Company were a particularly difficult group, as they had fought with other firefighters in the past. The best example of a previous conflict caused by the Hook & Ladder Company occurred just a few weeks before the circus riots.
The collision occurred after firefighters from Hook & Ladder arrived at the fire scene at the same time as another fire company. An all-out war broke out between the two groups, resulting in a firefighter riot. In this riot, the two groups fighting each other ended up looting the house that was supposed to be saved.
The point is that the firefighters were a group of alleged assaulters and were not afraid to cause further chaos.
Now add clowns to the equation…
Instead of making the logical decision to share the brothel and enjoy the night, both groups decided to argue about who could stay.
The argument quickly turned physical. No one knows how it started, but a fight broke out.
You’d think firefighters would stomp on clowns if they argued, but surprise! The clowns turned the situation, seriously injuring two firefighters and gaining access to an exclusive brothel that night.
My theory is that the firefighters completely underestimated the number of clowns in the car they arrived in.
However, this defeat did not end well.
Instead of accepting their loss, the members of the Hook and Ladder crew took out their complaints about the clown to their friends. The group they claimed was a Protestant gang known as the Orange Men. The Orange Men ran the city of Toronto at the time, and many of their members were involved in law enforcement.
The angry Orangemen went to the circus site and surrounded it.
Stones were thrown at the performers as they desperately tried to stop the mob. They failed and the crowd broke into the area.
When the mob invaded the circus grounds, chaos ensued. Firefighters and other rioters wielded axes and polearms, destroying equipment, attacking circuses and setting tents on fire.
Circus members fled for cover, and the riot ended when the mayor called in the militia, although police were on standby throughout.
The police, mostly Orangemen, did nothing out of solidarity with the firefighters. The only thing they did was stop the mob from burning the circus animals.
After the riot, the circus members returned to the destroyed area, took their remaining belongings, and fled.
Only 17 people were arrested in the Toronto Circus riots, and only one of them was convicted. This is because police protected the Orange Man’s identity at the scene as part of a larger cover-up.
The Toronto Circus riots, along with various other instances of violence masked by police cover-ups, eventually served as a catalyst for systematic police reform in the city, but these changes were not immediate.
The next very strange riot we’ll cover is Straw Hat Riots of 1922This happened in New York City. The riots were a series of small conflicts that occurred over eight days.
The reason for the Straw Hat Riot was a very trivial one. Because men had the audacity to wear straw hats that were past their fashion expiration date.
Straw hats became an essential item of summer fashion in the 19th century. Hats were considered informal summer wear worn at sporting events. Fashion trends originated outside the city but eventually became socially acceptable in urban areas in the early 20th century.
By the early 1900s, straw hats had become a summer staple for men of all social classes. Despite its popularity, strict social mores meant it was only allowed until September 15th. After this unofficial deadline, men were expected to switch to winter hats, such as silk or felt hats, and store their straw hats until the following year.
Despite the random date, anyone seen wearing a straw hat after this point may be subject to some ridicule. In fact, it was common for people to walk up to someone wearing a straw hat, knock the hat off their head, and then step on them.
The hat-stomping tradition is well known and has persisted for many years, with many men switching to felt or silk hats after the 15th.
The first Straw Hat Riots occurred on September 13th. Even though hat-stomping season is just two days away, New York’s youth don’t want to wait. A group of youth known as “Mulberry Bend” took to their own hat-stomping activities early and began knocking off and trampling the hats of factory workers.
After stomping on enough factory workers’ hats, the group began harassing the dock workers, who were not pleased. A fight broke out between the two groups and quickly turned into a brawl that police had to break up.
Even though the first fight was broken up and some of the perpetrators were arrested, there was a backlash. Other young men decided to escalate the situation and took to the streets in solidarity, brandishing weapons such as large sticks with nails on the end.
On the streets, they harassed people wearing straw hats and beat those who resisted.
One witness recalled a group of children stealing straw hats and joining a band of 1,000 hat-hunting youths who roamed Manhattan looking for brave souls still wearing their straw hats.
Several men had to be hospitalized after being beaten for their straw hats. Police tried to quell the riots, but the task was difficult because on-duty police took a long time to arrive on the scene, and off-duty workers were often targeted because they wore straw hats.
The riots eventually ended after three days due to police intervention. Many perpetrators were arrested and fined, and some were jailed.
However, the tradition of breaking the hat continued in subsequent years. The 1922 hat-breaking incident was by far the worst, but other acts of violence continued, and in 1924 a man was murdered for wearing a straw hat.
The straw hat boom eventually ended when the hats went out of style.
The last riot I’ll cover is leicester Balloon Riot, This serves as a catalyst for some truly grotesque violence. This incident occurred on July 11, 1864, in Victoria Park, Leicester, England, where a large gathering of 50,000 people became enraged by a single hot air balloon.
In 1864, travel was restricted. Since there were no airplanes or automobiles, people were fascinated by the idea of other forms of transportation, such as balloons.
Balloonist Henry Coxwell gave a public show of his new hydrogen balloon. This was interesting because it was rare for people to see any form of aviation in person and they were fascinated by the science behind it.
Spectators watched as Coxwell prepared for the climb. Some in the crowd, obsessed with the size of the spacecraft, began to express their displeasure, feeling deceived because the balloon looked much smaller than expected.
The small balloon pushed large crowds forward to get a better view of the disappointing sight. However, because there were so many people gathered around the balloon, Coxwell was unable to set it up properly.
As Coxwell struggled to prepare the ship, misinformation once again swept through the assembly. Rather than acknowledge that the huge crowd was interfering with his work, the mob interpreted his delay as a deliberate refusal to release.
This perceived defiance further angered the onlookers, whose complaints about the size of the balloon gave way to anger when it seemed like there would be no flight at all.
People were so angry that they started damaging the balloons. Desperate to control the situation, Coxwell told the crowd that if they did not back down, he would drain all the gas from the balloon.
Coxwell ultimately followed his warning, releasing the hydrogen and letting the spacecraft fail. Far from calming the mob, this sudden deflation destroyed any remaining enthusiasm and the spectators were convinced that the balloons were of poor quality because they had collapsed so quickly.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The crowd moved forward and tore down the balloon and placed a basket that set Coxwell on fire. Police quickly arrived on the scene and rescued Coxwell from the area, but were unable to stop the violence.
The riots damaged the reputation of the city of Leicester. The surrounding area began calling its people “balloonists,” referring to their crazy balloon riots.
The most unusual riots in history show that logic rarely rules the crowd. The immediate triggers of these events may seem outrageous, but they often mask the underlying tensions, rivalries, and frustrations that can ignite a mob with just a single spark.
