Peterloo massacre

The events in St Peter's Fields in Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when an open-air meeting in support of parliamentary reform was charged by yeomanry (voluntary cavalry soldiers) and hussars (regular cavalry soldiers). Eleven people were killed and 500 wounded. The name was given in analogy with the Battle of Waterloo.

The well-known radical politician Henry Hunt was to speak at the meeting. The crowd, numbering some 60,000 and including many women and children, was unarmed and entirely peaceful. The magistrates, who had brought in special constables from Lancashire and the Cheshire Yeomanry, nevertheless became nervous and ordered Hunt's arrest. As the yeomanry attempted to obey them, they were pressed by the mob. The hussars were sent in to help, and, in the general panic which followed, 11 people were killed and about 500 injured. The ‘massacre’ aroused great public indignation, but the government stood by the magistrates and passed the Six Acts to control future agitation.