1892

Events in 1892 51

• 1807 – 1892 John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) Died 7 September 1892, aged 84 John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker poet and prominent abolitionist whose verse, including "Snow-Bound," was widely read in nineteenth-century America. He was among the group known as the Fireside Poets.
• 1809 – 1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Died 6 October 1892, aged 83 Alfred, Lord Tennyson served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for over four decades and was one of the most popular poets of the Victorian era. Works such as "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "In Memoriam A.H.H." remain widely read today.
• 1819 – 1892 Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Died 26 March 1892, aged 72 Walt Whitman was an American poet and essayist whose collection Leaves of Grass broke with poetic convention and profoundly influenced modern verse. He is widely regarded as one of the most important poets in American literary history.
• 1823 – 1892 Edouard Lalo (1823-1892) Died 22 April 1892, aged 69 Edouard Lalo was a French composer best known for his Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra. His work helped revive interest in orchestral and chamber music in France during the late nineteenth century.
• 1823 – 1892 Ernest Renan (1823-1892) Died 2 October 1892, aged 69 Ernest Renan was a French philologist and historian whose controversial Life of Jesus applied historical-critical methods to Christian scripture. His writings on religion and nationalism had lasting influence on European intellectual life.
• 1834 – 1892 Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) Died 31 January 1892, aged 57 Charles Spurgeon was a Baptist preacher whose sermons at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London drew thousands and were widely published internationally. He remains one of the most quoted preachers in the English-speaking world.
• 1836 – 1892 Jay Gould (1836-1892) Died 2 December 1892, aged 56 Jay Gould was an American railroad executive and financier notorious for aggressive speculation, including his role in the Black Friday gold panic of 1869. By the time of his death he controlled a major portion of the US railroad network.
• 1864 – 1892 Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (1864-1892) Died 14 January 1892, aged 28 Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of the future King Edward VII and second in line to the British throne, died of influenza during a pandemic sweeping Europe. His death altered the line of succession, placing his younger brother George, later King George V, next after their father.
• 1892 – 1967 Basil Rathbone (1892-1967) Died 21 July 1967, aged 75 The British actor was best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes in a long-running series of films during the 1930s and 1940s. He died of a heart attack in New York City.
• 1892 – 1942 Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) Died 19 November 1942, aged 50 Bruno Schulz was a Polish Jewish writer and artist, author of The Street of Crocodiles and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. He was shot dead by a Gestapo officer in the Drohobych ghetto. He is considered one of the great Polish prose stylists of the 20th century.
• 1892 – 1934 Engelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934) Died 25 July 1934, aged 41 Chancellor of Austria who suspended parliament and set up the authoritarian Federal State of Austria. Austrian Nazis killed him during the failed July Putsch.
• 1892 – 1947 Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) Died 30 November 1947, aged 55 Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director who became one of Hollywood's leading makers of sophisticated comedies. His films include Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not to Be. His witty style became known as the Lubitsch touch.
• 1892 – 1975 Francisco Franco (1892-1975) Died 20 November 1975, aged 82 Francisco Franco ruled Spain as dictator for 36 years following his victory in the Spanish Civil War. His death ended the Francoist regime and opened the way for Spain's transition to democracy under King Juan Carlos I. He had designated Juan Carlos as his successor in 1969.
• 1892 – 1934 Gregor Strasser (1892-1934) Died 30 June 1934, aged 42 Leading early Nazi organiser and head of the party's left wing, who broke with Hitler in 1932. He was murdered in a Gestapo cell during the Night of the Long Knives.
• 1892 – 1975 Haile Selassie (1892-1975) Died 27 August 1975, aged 83 Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia as emperor from 1930 until he was deposed by a military coup in 1974. He was held under house arrest and reportedly died in captivity in Addis Ababa, though the exact circumstances of his death were disputed for years. He remains a revered figure in the Rastafari movement.
• 1892 – 1949 James Forrestal (1892-1949) Died 22 May 1949, aged 57 James Forrestal served as the first United States Secretary of Defense, having earlier been Secretary of the Navy during World War II. He died shortly after resigning from office amid declining mental health.
• 1892 – 1927 Kevin O'Higgins (1892-1927) Died 10 July 1927, aged 35 Kevin O'Higgins was Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister for Justice of the Irish Free State. He was assassinated by IRA members in Dublin in revenge for the executions carried out during the Civil War.
• 1892 – 1930 Mabel Normand (1892-1930) Died 23 February 1930, aged 37 American silent film comedian, screenwriter and director who worked with Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin. She was one of the most popular stars of early Hollywood comedy. She died of tuberculosis.
• 1892 – 1918 Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) Died 21 April 1918, aged 25 German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, was killed in action over the Somme valley after being hit by ground fire while pursuing an Allied aircraft. Credited with 80 confirmed aerial victories, he was the top ace of World War I. He was buried by Allied forces with full military honours.
• 1892 – 1948 Manuel Roxas (1892-1948) Died 15 April 1948, aged 56 Manuel Roxas, the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines, died of a heart attack while still in office on April 15, 1948. He had led the country through its formal independence from the United States in 1946 and the difficult early years of postwar reconstruction. His sudden death made him the first Philippine president to die in office.
• 1892 – 1941 Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) Died 31 August 1941, aged 48 Marina Tsvetaeva was one of the major Russian poets of the twentieth century. After returning from emigration she was isolated and destitute, and she took her own life in Yelabuga after being evacuated there.
• 1892 – 1957 Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) Died 7 August 1957, aged 65 American comic actor who formed one half of the double act Laurel and Hardy with Stan Laurel. Their films were among the most popular comedy productions of the 1920s and 1930s.
• 1892 – 1973 Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) Died 6 March 1973, aged 80 American writer Pearl S. Buck, best known for her novel The Good Earth and winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature, died in Danby, Vermont. She spent much of her early life in China, which shaped much of her writing.
• 1892 – 1973 Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973) Died 5 December 1973, aged 81 Scottish engineer Robert Watson-Watt, a pioneer of radar technology whose work was critical to Britain's air defense during the Second World War, died in Inverness, Scotland.
• 1892 – 1927 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) Died 24 July 1927, aged 35 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was a Japanese short-story writer whose works include Rashōmon and In a Grove. He took his own life in Tokyo. Japan's leading literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.
• 1892 – 1940 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) Died 26 September 1940, aged 48 German-Jewish philosopher and critic, author of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". He fled occupied France and killed himself in Portbou after Spanish officials threatened to return his group to France.
• 1892 – 1944 Wendell Willkie (1892-1944) Died 8 October 1944, aged 52 American lawyer and businessman who was the Republican nominee for president in 1940, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt. He went on to support aid to Britain and international cooperation. His book One World was a bestseller.
• 1892 Ellis Island opens as US immigration station Annie Moore becomes the first immigrant processed Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened as the primary federal immigration inspection station for the United States. Fifteen-year-old Irish immigrant Annie Moore was the first person processed there. Over the following decades it became the gateway for millions of immigrants entering the country.
• 1892 – 1973 J. R. R. Tolkien English fantasy writer Tolkien created The Lord of the Rings, defining modern epic fantasy literature and world-building.
• 1892 – 1973 J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English author, philologist and academic whose creation of Middle-earth — its languages, histories, myths and peoples — constitutes one of the most sustained acts of world-building in literary history. A professor of Anglo-Saxon and later English Language and Literature at Oxford, Tolkien spent forty years constructing a mythology he called 'a mythology for England,' rooted in Old English, Norse and Finnish literary traditions. The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) transformed fantasy literature and have sold over 600 million copies combined. He died before completing The Silmarillion, which his son Christopher edited and published posthumously in 1977.
• 1892 The Coca-Cola Company incorporated Asa Candler formalizes ownership of the drink Pharmacist Asa Candler incorporated the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia, after buying full rights to the drink's formula. The company grew from a local soda fountain product into one of the world's best-known brands.
• 1892 – 1964 Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) American comedian, singer and actor, a star of Ziegfeld's Follies, early radio and television, and founder of the March of Dimes name.
• 1892 Rudolf Diesel patents the diesel engine German patent filed for a new combustion engine Engineer Rudolf Diesel filed a German patent for a compression-ignition internal combustion engine. The design, aimed at higher efficiency than the steam engine, became the basis for diesel engines used worldwide in transport and industry.
• 1892 Memphis lynchings spark Ida B. Wells anti-lynching campaign Killing of three Black grocers prompts national exposure of lynching A white mob lynched three Black grocery store owners in Memphis, Tennessee, prompting journalist Ida B. Wells to investigate and publicize lynching across the American South. A mob later destroyed her newspaper office in May, forcing her to continue her campaign from the North.
• 1892 General Electric Company formed Merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston General Electric was created through the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. The new company, engineered with financing from J.P. Morgan, became one of the dominant electrical manufacturers in the United States.
• 1892 – 1980 Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) Died 4 May 1980, aged 87 Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman who led Yugoslavia as president from 1953 until his death, maintaining independence from both Soviet and Western blocs as a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement. He had led the Partisan resistance against Axis occupation during World War II. His death raised fears about Yugoslavia's future stability, which fractured a decade later.
• 1892 Sierra Club founded John Muir establishes conservation organization in San Francisco Naturalist John Muir and a group of supporters founded the Sierra Club in San Francisco to promote the protection of California's mountain landscapes, particularly the Sierra Nevada. It grew into one of the oldest and most influential environmental organizations in the United States.
• 1892 Populist Party adopts the Omaha Platform US third party formalizes agrarian and labor reform agenda Delegates of the newly formed People's Party, known as the Populists, met in Omaha, Nebraska and adopted a platform calling for the free coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, and public ownership of railroads. The party went on to win over a million votes in that year's presidential election.
• 1892 Homestead Strike Violent labor dispute at Carnegie Steel Workers at the Carnegie Steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania struck after a wage cut, leading to a gun battle with Pinkerton agents hired by the company that left several dead on July 6. The strike was broken after state militia occupied the town, weakening the steelworkers' union for decades.
• 1892 Keir Hardie elected as independent Labour MP First independent working-class MP in the British Parliament Keir Hardie won the seat of West Ham South in the general election, becoming the first person to sit in the British House of Commons as an independent representative of labour interests. His election was a milestone toward the later formation of the Labour Party.
• 1892 – 1962 Thomas Mitchell (1892-1962) American actor, the first to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony, with five major films in 1939 alone.
• 1892 – 1984 William Powell (1892-1984) Died 5 March 1984, aged 91 American actor William Powell, best known for playing detective Nick Charles opposite Myrna Loy in the Thin Man film series, died in Palm Springs, California.
• 1892 – 1978 Jack Warner (1892-1978) Died 9 September 1978, aged 86 Warner was a co-founder and longtime president of Warner Bros., one of Hollywood's major studios during its golden age. He died in Los Angeles.
• 1892 Lizzie Borden murder case Andrew and Abby Borden killed in Fall River, Massachusetts Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found hacked to death in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Andrew's daughter Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted the following year, but the unsolved case became one of the most notorious in American true-crime history.
• 1892 Gladstone forms fourth British ministry William Gladstone becomes prime minister again at age 82 Following the Liberal Party's victory in the 1892 general election, William Ewart Gladstone became British prime minister for a fourth and final time. His government subsequently pursued a second attempt at Irish Home Rule, which was defeated in the House of Lords.
• 1892 Panama Canal financial scandal becomes public French press exposes corruption in canal company collapse French newspapers revealed that officials and journalists had been bribed to conceal the financial collapse of Ferdinand de Lesseps' Panama Canal Company, which had ruined hundreds of thousands of small investors. The ensuing scandal implicated politicians and discredited parliamentary institutions in France.
• 1892 Second Franco-Dahomean War French forces conquer the Kingdom of Dahomey France invaded the Kingdom of Dahomey under General Alfred-Amedee Dodds after disputes over territory and trade. French troops captured the Dahomean capital, Abomey, in November, breaking the kingdom's military power, though King Behanzin continued resisting until his capture in 1894.
• 1892 New York-Chicago long-distance telephone line opens AT&T extends telephone service across nearly 1,000 miles A long-distance telephone line connecting New York City and Chicago was opened to the public, the longest such line in the world at the time. The achievement demonstrated the growing reach of telephone technology across the United States.
• 1892 Grover Cleveland elected US president Cleveland defeats incumbent Benjamin Harrison Democrat Grover Cleveland won the US presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican Benjamin Harrison and becoming the only person elected to non-consecutive presidential terms. The election also saw a strong showing by the new Populist Party candidate James Weaver.
• 1892 – 1976 J. Paul Getty (1892-1976) Died 6 June 1976, aged 83 J. Paul Getty, the American oil industrialist who founded Getty Oil and was once ranked the richest private citizen in the world, died at his estate near Guildford, England. He was renowned for his extreme frugality despite his vast fortune. His art collection formed the foundation of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
• 1892 Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker premieres Ballet debuts at the Mariinsky Theatre Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, choreographed by Lev Ivanov, premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Initial reviews were mixed, but the work later became one of the most performed ballets in the world.