January 25, 1979: A 25-year-old Ford Motor assembly line worker is killed on the job in a Flint, Michigan, casting plant. It’s the first recorded human death by robot.
Robert Williams’ death came on the 58th anniversary of the premiere of Karel Capek’s play about Rossum’s Universal Robots, which gave the world the first use of the word robot. It was an invented term, based it on the Czech word for “forced labor.”
So, what do you think, January 25 become known as Robot Independence Day?
