This March 1911 photo shows fire debris in a burned-out room of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory after a fire killed 146 people, mostly immigrant girls and women, when a fire started at the clothing company in New York. (AP file photo)

Today in History: March 25, Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York kills 146 workers

By The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, March 25, the 84th day of 2026. There are 281 days left in the year.

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 (MA’-sih-luhn), Ohio, to Washington, leading an “army” of as many as 500 unemployed workers to demand help from the federal government following the Panic of 1893 and ensuing depression.

In 1931, in the so-called Scottsboro Boys case, nine young Black men were taken off a train in Alabama and accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, they 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. (The fire was set by patron Julio Gonzalez, who had been thrown out of the club following an argument with his girlfriend; Gonzalez died in prison in 2016.)

In 1996, an 81-day standoff by the Montana Freemen, an antigovernment militia, began at a ranch near Jordan, Montana.

In 2018, 64 people, including 41 children, died in a shopping center fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo in Siberia. Relatives of the dead complained the shopping center’s emergency exits were locked and the mall’s fire alarms didn’t sound.

Today’s Birthdays: Film critic Gene Shalit is 100. Activist and author Gloria Steinem is 92. Musician Elton John is 79. Actor Bonnie Bedelia is 78. Actor Marcia Cross is 64. Author Kate DiCamillo is 62. Actor Lisa Gay Hamilton is 62. Actor Sarah Jessica Parker is 61. Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Glavine is 60. Comedian-actor Alex Moffat (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 44. Actor-singer Katharine McPhee is 42. Comedian-actor Chris Redd (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 41. Rapper Big Sean is 38. Actor Mikey Madison is 27. World-class sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson is 26. Actor Will Buie Jr. is 19.