May 22, 1520 · Tenochtitlan Theater
May 22, 1520
While Cortés was on the coast, Alvarado's garrison surrounded the unarmed celebrants of the festival of Toxcatl in the Great Temple precinct and killed them — the flower of Tenochtitlan's nobility, cut down at a religious festival they had been given permission to hold. The city rose immediately, penned the Spanish in their compound, and elected Cuitláhuac to lead the war.
Commanders