OK was first seen on the second page of the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839. The history of OK.
On 23 March 1839, OK was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post, in the midst of a long paragraph, as o.k. (all correct).
In the late 1830s, newspaper editors enjoyed inventing fanciful abbreviations, like WOOOFC for with one of our first citizens, NS for 'nuff said and OW for all right.
One of the reasons OK survived was a presidential candidate nicknamed Old Kinderhook, Martin van Buren, who campaigned with the slogan OK is all correct.
There was also an apocryphal story that Andrew Jackson had a spelling problem so he approved documents with OK, thinking it was the abbreviation for oll korrect.
In the 1840s people began marking OK on documents and using OK on the telegraph to signal that all was well.
In the 20th century it became commonplace and has spread to most other languages as well.
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