May 17, Bartholomew Roberts, pirate

1682 Bartholomew Roberts (b. John Roberts; aka Bart Roberts; Black Bart; d. February 10, 1722), Welsh pirate who raided shipping off the Americas and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. Despite his short career, he was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, capturing far more ships than some of the best-known pirates of this era, such as Blackbeard or Captain Kidd.
Pictured: Roberts's first flag shows him and Death holding an hourglass
 
Black Bart
The notorious outlaw of the American West, Black Bart, was a nickname of Charles Bolles (1829 - '88?), who adopted the name from a character, a villain, in serialised fiction, The Case of Summerfield, by Caxton (a pseudonym of William Henry Rhodes). It's likely that the name of the fictional character, in turn, was derived from 'Black Bart' Roberts.

Highwaymen, outlaws, bushrangers, pirates, gangsters, etc in the Book of Days
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