The World’s Oddest Riots

Podcast Transcript

Most riots are born from serious grievances: politics, poverty, religion, or oppression.

Some changed cities, some embarrassed governments, and some remain nearly impossible to explain.

There have been eruptions of violence that began for reasons so strange, so unexpected, and so absurd that they almost defy belief.

Learn more about the oddest riots in history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Riots have occurred throughout recorded human history. They aren’t common, and in some places, they are downright rare, but every so often, they do pop up.

Oftentimes, riots break out over social or economic grievances. Sometimes, it might be nothing more than a sports team winning a championship.

In previous episodes, I covered the Plum Pudding Riots at West Point, the St. Scholastica Day Riot at Oxford, the Great Nottingham Cheese Riot, and the Nika riots that almost destroyed the city of Constantinople in 532.

When we look back at the history of riots, we find some that are far more bizarre than those that broke out over cheese and plum pudding.

In this episode, I want to cover some of the strangest riots in history and their causes.

We’ll start with one that probably evokes the oddest visuals, the Toronto Circus Riot of 1855.

Taking place in Toronto, Canada, in 1855, the riot involved members of the U.S. touring show, S.B. Howes’ Star Troupe Menagerie & Circus.

The group had already performed two shows in the city, featuring clowns, acrobats, exotic animals, and everything else you associate with a circus. The show was a major draw that brought people into the growing city of Toronto.

Toronto in the mid 1850s was different from the city we know today. It was still very much a pioneer town. This meant there were many more businesses such as taverns. In a city of forty thousand people, there was a saloon on almost every blcok as well as hundreds of beer shops and brothels.

This is relevant to the events of the circus riot, as after the circus performers finished work, they decided to partake in the Toronto nightlife. One group that hit the town was the clowns.

The clowns decided to go to a brothel at King and John Street in downtown Toronto, near the St. Lawrence Market. A prospect which either terrified or amused the women who worked there.

However, their evening of pleasure did not go as planned. When the clowns arrived, men from the Hook & Ladder Firefighting Company were there.

To understand why this group was there, we need to understand Toronto firefighting in the 1850s.

Firefighting then was very different from modern firefighting. Instead of being sponsored by a local government, there were individual firefighting companies that competed against each other to get to and put out fires first.

The firefighters at the Hook & Ladder Company were a particularly tough group, having 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 Riot.

This conflict occurred after the firemen from Hook & Ladder had arrived at a fire at the same time as another firefighting company. An all-out brawl occurred between the two groups, resulting in the Firemen’s Riot. In this riot, both groups fighting against each other ended up looting the homes they were supposed to be saving.

The point is that the firefighters were a group with prior assault charges and were not afraid to cause more chaos.

Now add clowns to the equation…

Instead of making the logical decision for both groups to share the brothel and enjoy the night, they opted to argue over who could stay.

The arguing quickly turned physical. No one knows how it started, but a fight broke out.

You’d think firefighters would flatten clowns in a brawl, but surprise! The clowns turned the tables, seriously injuring two firemen and winning exclusive brothel access for the night.

My theory is that the firefighters totally underestimated the number of clowns that were in the car they arrived in.

However, this defeat did not go over well.

Instead of accepting their loss, the members of Hook & Ladder Crew went to their friends to express their grievances about the clowns. The group they pleaded their case to was a Protestant gang known as the Orange Men. The Orange Men essentially ran the city of Toronto at this time, and many of their members were involved in law enforcement.

In their anger, the Orange Men traveled to the circus site and surrounded it.

Stones were thrown at the performers, who were desperately trying to hold back the mob. They failed, and the crowd broke into the area.

Once the mob breached the circus grounds, mayhem followed. Firefighters and other rioters, wielding axes and pikes, laid waste to the equipment, assaulted the circus crew, and torched the tents.

The circus workers fled for cover, and the riot only ended when the Mayor called the militia, despite police being present the entire time.

Police, mostly Orange Men themselves, did nothing due to solidarity with firefighters. The only thing they did was stop the rioters from burning circus animals.

After the riot concluded, the circus workers returned to the destroyed area, collected their remaining belongings, and fled.

Only 17 people were arrested in the Toronto circus riot, and only one of those was convicted. This was due to the police protecting the identity of the Orange Men at the scene as part of a massive cover-up.

The Toronto Circus Riot, alongside various other instances of violence obscured by police cover-ups, eventually served as the catalyst for systemic police reform within the city, though these changes were not immediate.

The next very odd riot we’ll be covering is the Straw Hat Riot of 1922, which occurred in New York City. This riot was a series of small conflicts that erupted over eight days.

The reason for the Straw Hat Riot was pretty trivial: men had the audacity to wear straw hats past the fashion expiration date.

Straw hats became a popular staple in summer fashion in the 19th century. The hats were considered informal summer wear that was worn at sporting events. The fashion trend originated outside cities but eventually became socially acceptable in urban areas during the early 20th century.

By the early 1900s, straw hats had become a summer staple for men across all social classes. Despite their popularity, a strict social convention dictated their use: they were only acceptable until September 15. After this unofficial deadline, men were expected to transition to cold-weather headwear, such as silk or felt hats, and put their straw ones in storage until the following year.

Though this was an arbitrary date, anyone seen wearing a straw hat past this point was subject to whatever ridicule was thrown at him. It was actually common for people to go up to a straw hat wearer, knock the hat off their head, then stomp on it.

The hat-stomping tradition had persisted for years and was well known, leading many men to switch to felt or silk hats after the 15th.

The first straw hat riot occurred on September 13. Despite the fact that it was two days the start of hat-stomping season, young people in New York didn’t want to wait. A group of youths known as the “Mulberry Bend” took it upon themselves to start the hat-stomping early and began knocking off and stomping on factory workers’ hats.

After stomping on enough of the factory workers’ hats, the group moved to tormenting the dock workers, who were not pleased. A fight broke out between the two groups, quickly turning into a brawl that the police had to break up.

Despite the first fight being broken up and some of the perpetrators being arrested, there was backlash. Other youths decided to escalate the situation in solidarity, wielding weapons, like large sticks with nails on the end, and taking it to the street.

On the street, they tormented straw hat wearers and beat those who resisted.

One eyewitness recalled a group of kids who swiped his straw hat and joined a mob of 1,000 hat-hunting youth, prowling Manhattan for any brave souls still sporting straw hats.

Multiple men were beaten over their straw hats and needed to be hospitalized. Though police did try to break up the riots, the task proved difficult as the police on duty were slow to get to the scene, and those off duty who arrived were often wearing straw hats, making them a target.

The riots eventually ended after three days with police intervention. Many perpetrators were arrested and fined, and a few got jail time.

However, the tradition of hat-smashing continued over the next few years. The 1922 Hat Smashing was by far the worst, but other acts of violence continued, with one man even being murdered for wearing a straw hat in 1924.

The straw-hat stomping trend eventually ended when the hat went out of style.

The final riot I’ll be covering is the Leicester Balloon Riot, which stands as a truly bizarre catalyst for violence. This event took place on July 11, 1864, in Victoria Park, Leicester, England, where a massive assembly of 50,000 people was driven to fury by a single balloon.

In 1864, travel was limited. There were no planes or cars, leaving people enchanted by the idea of other forms of transportation, such as balloons.

Henry Coxwell, a balloon operator, staged a public show for his new hydrogen balloon. This was exciting as 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 ascent. A segment of the crowd, fixated on the craft’s dimensions, began to voice their dissatisfaction, feeling cheated because the balloon appeared much smaller than they had anticipated.

The small balloon prompted the large crowd to move forward to get a better look at the disappointing spectacle. However, because so many people were crowding around the balloon, Coxwell was unable to set it up properly.

As Coxwell struggled to prepare the craft, misinformation swept through the assembly once more. Rather than acknowledging that the sheer volume of spectators was obstructing his work, the mob interpreted his delay as a willful refusal to launch.

This perceived defiance further incensed the onlookers, whose dissatisfaction with the balloon’s dimensions turned into outrage when it appeared they would see no flight at all.

The people were so angry that they began damaging the balloon. Desperate to get the situation in control, Coxwell told the crowd that if they didn’t back away, he would let all of the gas out of the balloon.

Coxwell ultimately followed through on his warning, releasing the hydrogen and letting the craft fail. Rather than pacifying the mob, this sudden deflation destroyed any remaining enthusiasm and convinced the spectators that the balloon was of poor quality because it collapsed so rapidly.

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The crowd moved forward, tearing into the balloon and setting the basket that would’ve held Coxwell on fire. Police quickly got to the scene and got Coxwell out of the area, but were unable to stop the violence.

The riot damaged the city of Leicester’s reputation. Surrounding areas began to dub the people there as “Balloonatics,” in reference to the insanity of the balloon riot.

History’s most peculiar riots demonstrate that logic seldom governs a crowd. While the immediate triggers of these events may seem absurd, they often mask underlying tensions, rivalries, and frustrations that can ignite a mob with a single spark.