January 25th 1921 Karel Capek debuted a new play titled R.U.R, (which stands for Rossum's Universal Robots) This event marks the first use of the word "robot" to describe an artificial person. Capek invented the term, basing it on the Czech word for "forced labor." ("Robot" entered the English language in 1923.)
The robots in Capek's play are not mechanical men made of metal; instead they are molded out of a chemical batter and they look exactly like humans. Each robot costs the equivalent of $150 and "can do the work of two-and-a-half human laborers," so that humans might be free to have "no other task, no other work, no other cares" than perfecting themselves.
However, the robots come to realize that even though they have "no passion, no history, no soul," they are stronger and smarter than humans. They kill every human but one.
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