The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place
On this day · 26 October 1881
Thirty seconds of gunfire in a Tombstone lot in 1881 became the most famous shootout of the American West.
Around three o’clock on October 26, 1881, in the silver-boom town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, lawmen and outlaws met in a narrow lot near the O.K. Corral. On one side stood town marshal Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan, and the gambler-dentist Doc Holliday. Facing them were members of the Clanton and McLaury families, part of a loose group of cattlemen known as the Cowboys.
The confrontation that had been building for months erupted in gunfire. About thirty shots were exchanged in roughly thirty seconds. When the smoke cleared, Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers lay dead; Virgil and Morgan Earp and Holliday were wounded, while Ike Clanton had fled unarmed.
A half-minute of shooting outlived everyone in it, becoming Western legend.
Murder charges followed, but a judge ruled the lawmen had acted within the law. Books and films would turn the brief, chaotic fight into the enduring symbol of frontier justice.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
