Billy the Kid is born, September 17, 1859
William Henry McCarty Jr.—he called himself William H. Bonney—was probably born in New York City. He was the son of Irish immigrants who came to America to escape the potato famine. His father was long gone when his mother and stepfather opened a boarding house in Silver City, New Mexico. His mother tried to raise him right: he could read well, write a legible hand, and was known to be polite and well mannered. But the New Mexico Territory was a hard place to grow up. By the time Billy was eight, he could deal monte.