“"On the evening of May 10, 1849, a mob of more than 10,000 New Yorkers - some of them brandishing pistols and hurling rocks - faced off against city police outside the Astor Place Opera House. As the clash escalted, state militiamen opened fire on the crowd with muskets, leaving more than 20 people dead and dozens injured. The flashpoint of the riot, the bloodiest in American history to that point, was not military conscriptions or voting rights or even liquor licensing; it was Shakespeare. Sepcifically, fans of the American Shakespearean actor Edwin Forfrest wished to express their displeasure with suppporters of his English rival, William Charles Macready, by cracking their heads open."”
