October 18

Agrippina Starves to Death

A mother's grief becomes her final rebellion

On the desolate island of Pandateria, Agrippina the Elder, granddaughter of Augustus and mother to a future emperor, died of self-inflicted starvation. Banished by the paranoid Emperor Tiberius and heartbroken by the deaths of her sons Nero and Drusus, she chose death over submission, turning her body into a final act of defiance against imperial tyranny.

Germany Gets a New Chancellor

Weltpolitik finds its champion

Count Bernhard von Bulow assumed the chancellorship of the German Empire, inheriting Bismarck's creation and steering it toward global ambition. A fervent advocate of Weltpolitik, he would transform Germany into a colonial and naval power, but his bellicose foreign policy alienated France, Britain, and Russia, planting seeds of the catastrophe that would erupt in 1914.

Regency TR-1

Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio.