July 11, 2016

Today marks the 212th anniversary of the deadly duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The Burr–Hamilton duel was a duel between two prominent American politicians – Aaron Burr, the sitting Vice President of the United States, and Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury – at Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. The duel was the culmination of a long and bitter rivalry between the two men. Tensions reached a boiling point with Hamilton's journalistic defamation of Burr's character during the 1804 New York gubernatorial race in which Burr was a candidate. Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton, who was carried to the home of William Bayard on the Manhattan shore, where he died the next day. Burr, who survived the duel, was indicted for murder in both New York and New Jersey, though these charges were later dismissed.