Duels used to be a commonly used method of problem solving, but as the years passed they inevitably fell out of fashion as barbaric and pointless. The last duel fought in Canada was in August of 1873 between two men who had once been good friends.
Their friendship reached an impasse when both men fell in love with the same women. The lovers spat couldn’t be concluded for some time, until one of the men decided to challenge the other to a duel, which was readily accepted. The men lined up honorably, yet things went amiss as soon as they began pacing away from each other.
At the decided ten yards, they turned at shot. One man immediately hit the ground, and the other, who believed he had just killed his opponent, was seized with horror and had a nervous fit. The men who had loaded the guns admitted both were loaded with blanks and the first man had simply fainted, an embarrassing and dishonorable setup for any duel.
In the end, both men thanked each other and were once again friends, which makes this duel perhaps the least successful duel in history!