Today in History: March 25, Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York kills 146 workers
Today in history:
On March 25, 1911, 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. garment factory in New York; the tragedy led to legal reforms for workers' rights and workplace safety.
Also on this date:
In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began a march from Massillon, Ohio, leading an 'army' of as many as 500 unemployed workers to Washington D.C. to demand help from the federal government.
In 1931, in the so-called 'Scottsboro Boys' case, nine young Black men were taken off a train in Alabama, accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, the nine were eventually vindicated.
In 1947, a coal-dust explosion inside the Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 in Washington County, Illinois, killed 111 miners; 31 survived.
In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 people to the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery, completing a five-day march from Selma to protest the denial of voting rights to Black Americans.
In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid. (Faisal bin Musaid was executed for the killing three months later.)
In 1990, 87 people were killed when fire raced through the Happy Land social club in New York City. (An arsonist, Julio Gonzalez, set the fire after being thrown out of the club following an argument with his girlfriend; Gonzalez died in prison in 2016.)
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