Today is March 25.
It was on this date in 1911 that a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirt Waist factory in New York City, just minutes before the seamstresses were to go home for the day. Some of the workers burned to death while other leaped to their deaths from the windows of the 10-story building. A total of 147 people died. The tragedy was a turning point in labor history, bringing about reforms in health and safety laws, after it was determined that some of the victims had been trapped by a locked door.
Exactly 79 years later, in 1990, an arson fire swept an overcrowded, illegal Bronx, N.Y., social club -- killing 87 people in the worst mass slaying in U.S. history to that point and the deadliest New York blaze since the Triangle Shirt Waist factory disaster. Julio Gonzalez, 36, was charged with arson and murder.
Another tragedy on this date in 1947 -- a mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., killed 111 men, most of them asphyxiated by gas.
It was a sign of the capitalist revolution. On this date in 1992, veterans of the former Soviet KGB announced plans to sell cloak-and-dagger tales to Hollywood for movies and TV.
And, RCA began producing color television sets on this date in 1954.
We now return you to the present, already in progress.
