SEPTEMBER 23 — 1875 Billy the Kid arrested for first or second time; 2003 Gallup shows Iraqis expect better life without Saddam in 5 years; Patents: 1879 Richard Rhoades invents hearing aid, 1884 Herman Hollerith patents first mechanical tabulating machine, or computer; 1779 John Paul Jones takes fight to the U.K.
SEPTEMBER 23
1875 – Billy the Kid
…is arrested for the first time, says history.com. However, Wallis, according to Wiki, says that September was the second time he was arrested, and the first time was back in April for stealing cheese. Why the varying accounts? Because when Billy the Kid’s mother died when he was young, the details about his life are a bit, shall I say, muddy. We don’t know if he was born in 1859, 1860 or 1861, but we think it was in New York City one of those years before his family moved all over the west and finally settled in Silver City, new Mexico, where he at least had some education.
So since we don’t know for sure, I guess we don’t need a historical point in time as an excuse to talk about him. I could go on all day about this guy. He was portrayed by Gary Cooper in The Real West who was a psychotic moron from the slums of New York, John Wayne in Chasm portrayed Billy the Kid as someone who dealt with unfortunate circumstances rather violently but if it weren’t for those events he would’ve been a good guy, or the Kris Kristofferson version love Pat Garret & Billy the Kid as someone who was fighting a losing war in life and was brutally punished because of it.
What I want to talk about is whether Billy the Kid, aka William Bonney, aka Kid Antrim, aka William Henry McCarty, was left handed or right handed? From the way he dressed and based on other pictures from the way he carried his gun, it appears he was right handed. He carried his pistol on his right hip. Though Wallis later recounts that he could shoot with his left hand as accurate as he does with the right. Haha! So he was ambidextrous, at least we think.
2003 – Gallup Poll shows majority of Iraqis expect better life in 5 years. Around 2/3 of Baghdad residents state the Iraqi dictators removal of Saddam Hussein was worth the hardships they’ve been forced to endure. Like I said, that was in 2003.
1879 – Richard Rhoades invents the hearing aid. It was called the Audio phone. He discovered by putting a watch in his mouth he could hear it ticking internally, therefore that sound waves can be transmitted through teeth or cranial bones. 1884 — Herman Hollerith from Buffalo NY patents the mechanical tabulating machine. This was an early computer, folks. We’re talking the original punch card system that would dominate the computing background for nearly a hundred years.
1779 – John Paul Jones takes the fight to the UK. This is another great thing about America; he’s one of the two fathers of the US Navy and he was barely an American. He served in the American Revolution briefly and spent the rest of his career in the Russian navy. In August 1779, he took command of the Bonhomie Richard and sailed to the British Isles. On September 23, he fought British ships Serapes and Countess of Scarborough. It wasn’t looking good for Jones and the British asked him to surrender, which he famously replied I Have Not yet begun to fight, and continued the fight until both British ships surrendered to Jones. He is buried in Annapolis Maryland. John Paul Jones, like a boss!