Here’s a brief look back in time on this day, March 23.
In 1775, future Virginia governor and Founding Father Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech deploring British rule in the American colonies. Heard before the 2nd Virginia Convention, this was where he coined the classic Patriot term “give me liberty, or give me death!” At this time, colonists in Massachusetts secretly led the resistance against the Crown, with the Boston Tea Party having occurred over a year earlier in 1773. The colonies wouldn’t know that in just a few weeks time, the American Revolution was going to begin.
In 1839, The Boston Morning Post posts the now common word “OK”. Believed to be a misspelling of “all correct”, the word is now used on an everyday basis in the American vernacular. It’s used sometimes as an acknowledgment; sometimes as sarcasm; and sometimes as an “alrighty then” following an awkward comment.
In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright file their first patent for an experimental flying machine. The brothers had tried restlessly to prove that man can indeed fly. After years of glider tests, they came up with a concept of motorized flight; the machine wasn’t called a plane, but the “Wright Flyer”. Their first successful flight with the machine hasn’t happened yet; that date would arrive on December 17 this same year. The brothers were very intent on keeping their flight tests a secret to prevent imitators from stealing their design. The patent wasn’t approved from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office until 1906: three years after their first filing.