[Wikipedia] June 13: Priestley Riots

   The Priestley Riots took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in
   Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were religious
   Dissenters, most notably the religious and political controversialist,
   Joseph Priestley.  The riots started with an attack on a hotel that was
   the site of a banquet organized in sympathy with the French
   Revolution.  Then, beginning with Priestley's church and home, the
   rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven
   houses, and several businesses.  Many of them became intoxicated by
   liquor that they found while looting, or with which they were bribed
   to stop burning homes.  A small core could not be bribed, however, and
   remained sober.  They burned not only the homes and chapels of
   Dissenters, but also the homes of people they associated with
   Dissenters, such as members of the scientific Lunar Society.  While the
   riots were not initiated by Prime Minister William Pitt's
   administration, the national government was slow to respond to the
   Dissenters' pleas for help.  Local Birmingham officials seem to have
   been involved in the planning of the riots, and they were later
   reluctant to prosecute any ringleaders.  Those who had been attacked
   gradually left, leaving Birmingham a more conservative city than it
   had been throughout the eighteenth century.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestley_Riots

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1525:
   Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy
   discipline decreed by the Roman Catholic Church on priests.