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Katie Couric's Notebook: Triangle Factory

"They crashed through broken glass. They crushed themselves to death on the sidewalk. Of those who stayed behind, it is better to say nothing."

That's a line from the original New York Times report on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire - which happened 100 years ago today.

At 4:40 in the afternoon, a fire broke out in a scrap bin at the Greenwich Village factory. Within 30 minutes, 146 people were dead - most of them girls and young women.

Anger and calls for change spread as quickly as the flames, and sweeping reform rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Health and safety regulations were established, along with minimum wage, maximum work hours...and child labor laws.

Until just last month, six of the Triangle fire victims remained unidentified. Today, for the first time, all 146 will be named at a memorial service.

What was destroyed in half an hour...built a century-long legacy of workers' rights.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

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