What is Okay History?
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History March 25 - March 31.
Welcome back, Okay History, Friends. I hope you enjoyed all the college basketball over the weekend. May all your BRACKETS be intact, and may you be at the top of the standings in your March Madness work polls.
As you watch these athletic young men and women achieve their dreams of winning a national title, don’t forget you have talent. Perhaps your abilities are not athletic but, instead, more intellectual. Maybe you spend your time watching television, exercising your brain into the massive computer of knowledge it is.
Jeopardy debuted on NBC on March 30, 1964. It was a daytime show then and ran until January 3, 1975. They took a few years off and returned on October 2, 1978, but it only lasted a few months until March 2, 1979. Jeopardy was the ex that kept coming back into your life saying they had changed but had not.
The show we all know and love, the one that did change their ways and brought the introduction of This Is Jeopardy, made its debut in 1984, which means I will likely mention it again later this year.
Alex Trebek hosted the show when it was rebooted until he died in 2021. It’s now hosted by that woman who was on Blossom and the Nerd Show on CBS and some guy who won a ton on Jeopardy as a contestant.
If you don’t know how Jeopardy works, the premise is simple. Three contestants compete against each other in six categories. What separated Jeopardy was that the answers were provided, and to win, you needed to give the question.
Here’s an example:
Category: Things you don’t care about.
For $100:
It’s the 210th most popular history newsletter on Substack that desperately needs an editor and a growth plan.
Answer:
What is Okay History?
In the final round, you could wager how much you were willing to bet based on the topic alone. One of my brothers watched this show all the time. He was good at it. Me? I never got into it. I do miss Alex Trebek.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
Jacob Coxey, Sr. led a march on Washington, DC, on March 25, 1894. One hundred unemployed men from Ohio marched to Washington, DC, to demand the government give them jobs. A guy named Jacob Coxey led the march in response to the Panic of 1893 that produced massive unemployment. The guys had a radical idea that the government provide jobs to build roads and other essential infrastructure projects. It is the answer to the question: Who led the movement for government jobs that eventually became a part of the New Deal?
The United States withdrew from Somalia on March 25, 1994. In October 1993, the United States invaded Somalia, the eastern African country that was in the middle of the Civil War. What began as a raid to capture a bad guy turned into a prolonged battle that saw three Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 Americans. It is the answer to the question: What did the US get right when it invaded Somalia in 1993?
The United States built six ships on March 27, 1794. Congress authorized the construction of six ships: the USS Constitution, Chesapeake, Constellation, President, United States, and Congress. This answers the question: What did the United States do to create a navy?
The Maundy Monday Newsletter turns three this week. Have some cake and celebrate what we do here every Monday. I appreciate your support.
Speaking of cake, Anonymous and I spent time with good friends to celebrate the wedding of one of her closest friends from college. It was down in Florida, and it’s always a shock to the system when you leave a place that is 46 degrees to someplace that is 78 degrees and humid. It was a great time. I ate a lot of cake.
I’ll be back on Friday with the election ranking or may answer a question. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I am grateful you joined me.
Okay,
Chris
Fun Fact: The USS CONSTITUTION was designated as a museum ship in 1907, but is still a fully commissioned Navy ship berthed in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, and is crewed by active-duty Navy personnel. I've been on it several times - reenlisting and receiving medals, and the flag in my shadow box was flown on her.