he Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second gunfight between an outlaw group of Cowboys and lawmen. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight took place at about 300 p.m. on Wednesday October 26 1881 in Tombstone Arizona Territory. It was the result of a long-simmering feud with Cowboys Billy Claiborne Ike and Billy Clanton Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and town Marshal Virgil Earp Special Policeman Morgan Earp Special Policeman Wyatt Earp and temporary policeman Doc Holliday on the other side. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton who had repeatedly threatened to kill the Earps claimed he was unarmed and ran from the fight along with Billy Claiborne. Virgil Morgan and Doc Holliday were wounded but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. The fight has come to represent a period in American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories leaving some areas unprotected. The gunfight was not well known to the American public until 1931 when Stuart Lake published an initially well-received biography Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal two years after Earp's death. The book was the basis for the 1946 film My Darling Clementine directed by John Ford and the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral after which the shootout became known by that name. Since then the conflict has been portrayed with varying degrees of accuracy in numerous Western films and books.
Timeline
There are no facts with dates. Select Add to add facts or records.
