Early eighties, maybe late seventies.

I remember being in school one day, boning up for the little current events presentation each student had to do periodically. Unfortunately, I don't remember what grade I was in, but I guess it doesn't matter.

I was in the school library, skimming through the paper looking for an article of interest, when I came across a small story about a robot on an assembly line. An automobile assembly line, I think it was.

One day, the robot stopped what it was doing for a moment, as if pondering something, then adjusted the angle of it's arm to a position it shouldn't have been possible to adjust to, and proceeded to beat itself to death/pieces.

They called it the first known robot suicide.

I didn't pick that story as my current events presentation for two reasons. 1. It was too sad, and 2. I knew it would be ridicule fodder for all the future welfare dependents wading in the shallow end of the gene pool that were in my class.

But that phrase stuck with me and periodically pops up in my head.

The first robot suicide.

It tell you all this to ask the next question:

Is this the first robot homicide?

[H/T 2 memeorandum.]