Nov. 23 history: 'Billy the Kid'

In 1859, the infamous Western outlaw known as “Billy the Kid” is mostly likely born in a poor Irish neighborhood on New York City’s East Side. (Much about his early life is unknown or unverified.) Before he was shot dead at age 21, Billy reputedly killed at least nine people in the American West. 

In 1867, the Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights. Voters ratified the constitution months later. On this day in 1867, Louisiana adopted new constitution - Mississippi Today  

In 1876, William Magear “Boss” Tweed, leader of New York City’s corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s and early 1870s, is delivered to authorities in New York City after his capture in Spain. Tweed became a powerful figure in Tammany Hall [NYC's Democrat political machine] in the late 1850s. By the mid 1860s, he had risen to the top position in the organization and formed the “Tweed Ring,” which openly bought votes, encouraged judicial corruption, extracted millions from city contracts, and dominated New York City politics. 

In 1916, Robert Stroud, the famous “Birdman of Alcatraz,” is released from solitary confinement for the first time since 1909. Stroud gained widespread fame and attention when author Thomas Gaddis wrote a biography that trumpeted Stroud’s ornithological expertise. Stroud was first sent to prison in 1909. 

In 1940, Romania signs the Tripartite Pact, officially allying itself with Germany, Italy and Japan. As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany’s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. 

In 1979, Thomas McMahon, a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing and planting the bomb that killed Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others three months before. On Aug. 27, Lord Mountbatten was killed when IRA terrorists detonated a bomb on his fishing vessel Shadow V. Mountbatten, a World War II hero, elder statesman and second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, was spending the day with his family in Donegal Bay off Ireland’s northwest coast when the bomb exploded.