OK’s origins

From the Boston Globe: "'OK' first appeared in Boston in 1839, when the Morning Post used it as the playfully misspelled abbreviation of 'all correct.' … 'OK' was one of many such comic short forms. But in 1840 it rose by being tethered to Democratic presidential candidate Martin Van Buren. His nickname was Old Kinderhook, after the upstate New York town from which he hailed. This coincidence of initials made 'OK' famous enough to be given a false origin myth — namely that former president Andrew Jackson, unfairly mocked for his bad spelling, used to sign off his documents with 'OK,' as in 'Ole Korrect.'This hoax embedded the word's present meaning in the lexicon."