Peterloo
/ˌpiːtəˈluː/
/ˌpiːtərˈluː/
(also the Peterloo Massacre)
- the name given to an incident that took place in Manchester, England, in 1819. A group of people gathered in St Peter's Fields in central Manchester to demand political change. The crowd was large, but peaceful and not armed. It was attacked by the army, who killed eleven people and injured about 500. The name Peterloo is a mixture of St Peter's Fields and Waterloo, the battle at which many people had recently died.