The Astor Place Riot occurred on May 10, 1849, at the now-demolished Astor Opera House in Manhattan and leaves between twenty-two and thirty-one rioters dead, and more than one hundred and twenty people injured.
It is the deadliest to that date of a number of civic disturbances in Manhattan, which generally pit immigrants and nativists against each other, or together against the wealthy who control the city's police and the state militia.
The riot results in the largest number of civilian casualties due to military action in the United States since the American Revolutionary War, and leads to increased police militarization (for example, riot control training and larger, heavier batons).
Its ostensible genesis is a dispute between Edwin Forrest, one of the best-known American actors of that time, and William Charles Macready, a similarly notable English actor, which largely revolves around which of them is better than the other at acting the major roles of Shakespeare.
