The Peterloo Massacre

Some sixty thousand people, many in their Sunday clothes and with children, gathered peacefully to hear the case for parliamentary reform. Manchester then had no member of parliament at all. Magistrates ordered the speakers arrested and sent in mounted yeomanry with sabres.

Eighteen people were killed and hundreds injured. A journalist coined the name by grim comparison with Waterloo. The government thanked the magistrates and passed laws restricting public meetings; reform came thirteen years later.