The Aaron Burr- Alexander Hamilton Duel on This Day in History

This Day In History: The famous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton happened on this day in 1804 (Hamilton would go on to die from his wounds). Andrew Jackson would also be involved in several duels and Lincoln was once called out for a duel, but cooler heads eventually prevailed. The French were especially creative when it came to dueling. In 1808, two Frenchmen fought in balloons over Paris, each attempting to shoot and puncture the other's balloon, and in 1843, two other Frenchmen fought a duel by means of throwing billiard balls at each other. 

There was even a famous duel between two women: "A certain Mrs. Elphinstone expected no more than a cup of tea when she paid a social call to Lady Almeria Braddock’s London home in 1792. But the visit veered off into decidedly unladylike territory when the hostess, evidently enraged by a casual comment Mrs. Elphinstone made about her age, challenged her guest to a duel in Hyde Park. According to reports, Mrs. Elphinstone fired her pistol first, knocking Lady Braddock’s hat to the ground. The women then took up swords, and Lady Braddock got her revenge by wounding her opponent in the arm. The 'Petticoat Duel,' as it came to be known, ended without further incident when Mrs. Elphinstone agreed to write a letter of apology."~Jennie Cohen

Dueling eventually fell out favor in the mid-1800's.

“The career of dueling showcases a puzzling phenomenon we will often encounter: a category of violence can be embedded in a civilization for centuries and then vanish into thin air. When gentlemen agreed to a duel, they were fighting not for money or land or even women but for honor, the strange commodity that exists because everyone believes that everyone else believes that it exists. Honor is a bubble that can be inflated by some parts of human nature, such as the drive for prestige and the entrenchment of norms, and popped by others, such as a sense of humor.” ― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

See also The Bloody History of Dueling
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-bloody-history-of-duelling.html

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Dueling Documentary