March 21
U.S. president Jimmy Carter informs a group of U.S. athletes that, in response to the December 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan, the United States will boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. It marked the only time that the United States boycotted the Olympic Games. – 1980.
March 22
In response to public fears and congressional investigations into communism in the United States, president Harry S Truman issues an executive decree to establish a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees. – 1947.
The Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification. It reads, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” – 1972.
March 23
The initials “O.K.” are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll correct,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the every-day speech of Americans. – 1839.
Five days into the U.S. Post Office’s first mass work stoppage in 195 years, president Richard Nixon declares a national emergency and orders 30,000 troops to New York City to break the strike. The troops did not have a clue how to sort and deliver mail: A settlement came a few days later. – 1970.
March 24
The second worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. – 1989.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commences air strikes against Yugoslavia with the bombing of Serbian military positions in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. The NATO offensive came in response to a new wave of ethnic cleansing launched by Serbian forces against the Kosovar Albanians March 20. – 1999.
March 25
An explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Ill. kills 111 miners. Mineworker’s president John L. Lewis calls for a six-day work stoppage by the Nation’s 400,000 soft coal miners to demand safer working conditions. – 1947.
March 26
Police enter a mansion in San Diego, Calif., and discover 39 victims of a mass suicide. The deceased were members of the Heaven’s Gate religious cult, whose leaders preached that suicide would allow them to leave their bodily containers and enter an alien spacecraft hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. – 1997.
March 27
The University of Oregon defeats The Ohio State University, 46–33, to win the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Northwestern University in Evanston. The Final Four, which is the tournament’s four remaining teams, has grown exponentially in size and popularity – 1939.
Sources: History.com and Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor