TOMBSTONE, Ariz. — Oct. 26 marks the 142nd-anniversary of one of Arizona's most famous gunfights.
Back when the Grand Canyon State was still a territory, lawman Wyatt Earp and his brothers settled an ongoing feud with a group of cowboys by drawing their guns at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone.
The 30-second gunfight killed three men and spurred a legend that's been the subject for countless films and books.
Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer performed one of the most famous depictions of the 1881 conflict with their portrayals of the Western gunfighters in the 1993 film "Tombstone."
The violent bloodshed on Oct. 26 was reportedly the end result of a series of robberies and killings reported throughout Cochise County. Clear battle lines had been drawn between two groups of men who were both attempting to seize control over the Tombstone area.
After the dust had cleared on the afternoon of Oct. 26, the local sheriff charged the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday with murder, but a judge later ruled that the killings were justified. More about the gunfight can be read here.
Today, Tombstone still embraces its moniker as the "town too tough to die" and regularly brings its history to life with stagecoach rides and Western-themed reenactments.
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