October 26, 1881 The Earps shoot it out at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona

A vacant lot near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, is scene of the most notorious gunfight in the history of the American West. Tombstone was a rough mining town that had sprung up out of the Arizona desert in 1877 after a prospector named Ed Schieffelin discovered silver in the wilds of Arizona's Goose Flats. In the Old West, mining prosperity walked hand-in-hand with drunkenness, gambling, and gang rivalry, and Tombstone was no exception. 

By 1881, a dangerous rivalry had developed between two groups: the Earp brothers, featuring U.S. deputy marshal Virgil Earp and his two hot-headed brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, and the Clanton-McLaury gang, a group of rustlers and horse thieves. After Wyatt's horse was stolen, and the Earps began associating with John "Doc" Holliday, a drunken dentist and feared gunman who verbally abused the Clanton-McLaury gang and cheated two Clanton boys at cards, the tension came to a head. 

On the afternoon of October 26, Ike and Billy Clanton, Billy Clairborne, and Tom and Frank McLaury gather on the corner of Fremont Street up the block from the O.K. Corral. All of the gang except Ike and Frank are clearly armed, ignoring the city ordinance banning firearms within city limits. Virgil Earp, watching from down the street, deputizes his two brothers and Doc Holliday, and together they march up the street to confront their rivals. Standing nearby was Cochise County Sheriff John Behan who immediately rushed up the street to tell the Earps that the Clantons and McLaurys were mostly unarmed and just wanted to leave town peacefully. But the Earps shoved the sheriff aside and moved ahead to confront their enemies. 

After Virgil demands that they give up their guns, (Some say it was Wyatt's challenge "You sons of bitches, you're looking for a fight and now you can have it." Which ever it was, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton reach for their pistols, and Wyatt opens fire at Frank, whom he regards as a deadly shot. A split-second later Billy starts firing at Wyatt, and a moment after that, everyone is shooting. Immediately Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton in the chest at point-blank range, while Doc Holliday killed Tom McLaury with a blast from his double-barreled shotgun. Wyatt Earp shot Frank McLaury in the stomach, and the wounded man staggered out into the street but managed to pull his gun and return fire. When the smoke clears less than a minute later, Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton are dead or dying, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday are injured--shot in the calf, shoulder, and thigh respectively--and Wyatt Earp is untouched. Ike Clanton, who turned and ran to the O.K. Corral when the shooting commenced, is also unscathed. 

Sheriff Behan, who witnessed the entire shoot-out, immediately charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. The Earps and Holliday are called to court, but they are protected by their deputy status. A month later the Tombstone justice of the peace found the men not guilty, ruling, "the defendants were fully justified in committing these homicides." and the shooting is deemed justified.

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