Video: 'Hamilton: Building America -Alexander Hamilton vs. Aaron Burr | History'

(Wednesday, July 11, 1804, shortly after 7 a.m. local time) — U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel this morning in Weehawken, New Jersey.

The Burr–Hamilton duel was the culmination of a bitter rivalry that had developed over years between both men, who were high-profile politicians in the newly-established United States, founded following the victorious American Revolution and its associated Revolutionary War.

In the duel, Burr shot Hamilton in the abdomen. Hamilton returned fire and hit a tree branch above and behind Burr’s head.

Video: 'Burr Hamilton Duel'

Hamilton was transported across the Hudson River for treatment to the home of William Bayard Jr. in present-day Greenwich Village in New York City, where he died at 2:00 p.m. the following day, on July 12, 1804.

Video: 'The Hamilton-Burr Duel Explained'

Hamilton’s death permanently weakened the Federalist Party, which was founded by Hamilton in 1789 and one of the nation’s major two parties at the time.

It also ended Burr’s political career, as he was vilified for shooting Hamilton.