Also in September 1892
7th The American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier dies aged 84 in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. A leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the mid-19th century, Whittier wrote two volumes of poetry on the subject. He was, however, best known for his 1866 narrative poem Snow-bound: A Winter Idyl, which depicts a family’s return to normality after the American Civil War.
9th Using the new 36-inch refractor telescope at Lick Observatory in California, astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard discovers a fifth moon orbiting Jupiter. Barnard names the moon Amalthea after the foster-mother of Zeus in Greek mythology, though it is largely referred to as, simply, ‘Jupiter V’. It is the first moon of Jupiter to be discovered since 1610.
13th British prime minister William Gladstone addresses a crowd of 2,000 people on Mount Snowdon to thank Wales for its support in the recent general election, in which 28 out of 30 constituencies in the principality returned Liberal MPS. The outcrop from which he speaks will later be named ‘Gladstone’s Rock’ and marked with a plaque. 24th Berlin’s Theater Unter den Linden opens with performances of Adolf Ferron’s operetta Daphne plus Gaul and Hassreiter’s ballet Die Welt in Bild und Tanz. Built primarily for operetta and seating up to 2,500 people, the theatre soon runs into financial difficulties and is forced to close its doors. It later reopens as the Metropol-theater.
26th At the Moscow Electrical Exhibition, the 19-year-old Sergei Rachmaninov gives the first performance of his Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2. The work proves instantly popular and, published the following year, goes on to become one of his best-known pieces. However, as Russian publishers are not bound by copyright conventions, he receives just a one-off fee of 40 rubles for it.