Video: 'The Sensational 70s - 1970' (postal strike at 42:21)

(Wednesday, March 18, 1970, just after midnight EST; during the U.S. postal strike of 1970) — United States Post Office Department workers walked out on strike today in New York City after carriers in the Bronx and Manhattan voted 1,555 to 1,055 the day before in favor of not delivering the mail.

The strike quickly spread to other cities across the nation, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and Denver.

Ultimately, 210,000 of the 750,000 U.S. postal workers temporarily refused to work.

President Richard Nixon responded by assigning military units to sort and deliver the mail in New York City, and the strike was over within two weeks.

The strike influenced the contents of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which dissolved the United States Post Office Department, replaced it with the more corporate United States Postal Service, and guaranteed collective bargaining rights for postal workers (though not the right to strike).