The Victoria Hall Disaster of 16 June 1883, When 183 Children Died in a Stairwell for Free Toys
At a children's variety show in Sunderland on 16 June 1883, an announcement that children with certain tickets would receive prizes sent over a thousand children from the gallery racing downstairs — into a door bolted to open only child-wide. 183 children aged roughly three to fourteen were crushed. The law requiring outward-opening exits followed.
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