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.
At 7:20 in the morning, an explosion in the Place de la Republique in Paris announces the first attack of a new German gun. The Pariskanone, or Paris gun, as it came to be known, was manufactured by Krupps; it was 210mm, with a 118-foot-long barrel. Three shots are fired on Paris from a gun site at CrÉpy-en-Laonnaise, 74 miles away. – 1918.
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
Groundbreaking on the first section of the New York City subway system, from City Hall to the Bronx: According to The New York Times, the following was a worker’s review of the digging style of the well-dressed Subway Commissioners: “I wouldn’t give th’ Commish’ners foive cents a day fer a digging job. They’re too shtiff.” – 1900.
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. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spill into the water, which pollutes more than 700 miles of coastline. The captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer. Exxon Corporation was ordered to pay a penalty of $100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period for cleanup. However, the state government of Alaska and Exxon rejected the agreement and Exxon settled the matter by paying only $25 million. – 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.
The co-pilot of a German airliner deliberately flies the plane into the French Alps, and kills himself and the other 149 passengers onboard. – 2015.
March 25
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down and kills 145 workers. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers. – 1911.
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
In a ceremony at the White House, Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin sign an historic peace agreement to end three decades of hostilities between Egypt and Israel. – 1979.
Police enter a mansion in San Diego, Calif., and discover 39 victims of a mass suicide. The deceased all were found lying peaceably in matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers. It was later revealed that 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, in the championship game of the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Northwestern University in Evanston. The tournament, which started with eight teams, since has grown to 68 teams and has grown exponentially in popularity since 1939. – 1939
U.S. Supreme Court rules that undocumented workers do not have the same rights as Americans when they are wrongly fired. – 2002.
March 28
Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn.. Violence during the march persuades him to return the following week to Memphis, where he was assassinated. – 1968.
At 4 a.m. the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, Pa. fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat. – 1979.
March 29
Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam and Hanoi, the controlling operation headquarters of North Vietnam, frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam. – 1973.