Deaths

Heinrich Hertz proved electromagnetic waves exist and died at 36 before the world figured out what to do with them. In eight years between his breakthrough experiment and his death from a rare blood vessel disease, he confirmed Maxwell's theory, showed that radio waves travel at the speed of light, and laid the groundwork for every wireless technology ever built. Radio, television, radar, Wi-Fi, mobile phones — all of it traces back to a German physicist with a spark-gap transmitter in a university lab. The unit of frequency bears his name. One hertz. One cycle per second.

Bethmann-Hollweg was Germany's chancellor when the Great War began. He's the one who called Belgium's neutrality treaty a "scrap of paper" — a phrase that became Britain's rallying cry for entering the fight. He'd tried to keep Britain neutral. Failed completely. He backed unrestricted submarine warfare, then opposed it, then accepted it again under pressure from Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Those generals eventually forced him out in 1917. He retired and spent his remaining years writing memoirs insisting the war wasn't entirely his fault. He died in 1921, still making the case.