Famous People Born In 1792

Gioachino Rossini was an Italian composer best remembered for composing 39 operas before retiring at the peak of his popularity when he was still in his 30s. Such is his influence on modern-day virtuosi that many of them have created piano fantasies or transcriptions based on Gioachino Rossini's melodies.  

Charles Grandison Finney, dubbed as the Father of Modern Revivalism, began his career with the Presbyterian Church, where his style of preaching fermented spirited revivals. Later, his dissatisfaction with Presbyterian theology led to formation of Broadway Tabernacle and he started promoting abolitionism and equal education for women and blacks. He spent his last years as minister of Oberlin’s First Congregational Church.

The queen consort of the UK and Hanover by her marriage to King William IV, Adelaide was also the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. She miscarried twice and lost 2 more children as infants, and the royal throne eventually went to Princess Alexandrina Victoria, who later ruled as Queen Victoria.

The son of renowned astronomer William Herschel, John Herschel was educated at Eton and Cambridge and grew up to be a polymath. Apart from contributing to the field of photography, he was known for cataloguing and naming stars and satellites. He briefly also served as the Master of the Royal Mint.

William II took over as the king of the Netherlands after his father William I’s abdication. His reign witnessed the transformation of his country into a parliamentary democracy through the constitution of 1848. With F.A. van Hall as the finance minister, he helped his country attain a surplus.

German-French banker and the youngest child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, James Mayer de Rothschild. He took over the reins of his family banking firm after the death of his brother Nathan and headed the French Rothschild banking family. The Légion d'honneur winner later also invested in a vineyard.

Karl Ernst von Baer was a Baltic German explorer and scientist. A multi-talented personality, Baer was also a biologist, naturalist, geologist, geographer, and meteorologist. He is also regarded as the founding father of embryology. One of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society, Karl Ernst von Baer also served as the maiden president of the Russian Entomological Society.

Thomas Mitchell was a Scottish-born Australian explorer and surveyor of Southeastern Australia. He is best remembered for his service as the Surveyor-General of New South Wales from 1828 until his death on 5 October 1855. In 1839, Thomas Mitchell was knighted for his immense contribution to the surveying of Australia.

Austrian Roman Catholic priest and writer Josephus Mohr is best-known for writing lyrics of the popular Christmas carol Stille Nacht (Silent Night), which was composed by Austrian primary school teacher, church organist, and composer Franz Xaver Gruber. A manuscript in Mohr's handwriting discovered in 1995 states that Mohr penned the poem in 1816 and Gruber composed its music in 1818.

Pope Pius IX served as the longest-tenured pope. His reign also witnessed the first Vatican Council and was thus the last pope who had control over the Papal States. He also issued the Syllabus of Errors and inspired books such as The Pope Who Would Be King by David Kertzer.

Hendrik Potgieter was a South African politician who served as the head of state of Potchefstroom and Zoutpansberg. He is credited with founding Potchefstroom, which is named in his honor. He is also credited with founding Ohrigstad, a small town in the Limpopo province.

French mathematician and physicist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis proposed what is now known as Coriolis force. While teaching at the École Polytechnique, Paris, he extended the scope of kinetic energy. His On the Calculation of Mechanical Action remains his most significant book. His name remains inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

Manuel Oribe was a Uruguayan politician who served as the second Constitutional President of the country from 1 March 1835 to 24 October 1838. He is credited with founding the famous National Party, the oldest political party in the country.

Thomas Jefferson Hogg was a British writer and barrister. He is remembered for his friendship and numerous collaborations with Percy Bysshe Shelley. While studying at the University College, Oxford, Hogg and Shelley worked on a controversial essay called The Necessity of Atheism which ultimately resulted in their expulsion from Oxford.

Greek poet Andreas Kalvos is best remembered for his works such as Lira and Neas Odas. Part of the Ionian, also known as the Heptanese or Romantic school of Greek poetry, he introduced Italian Neoclassical elements to Greek literature, as he was born and raised in Italy.

Renowned Hungarian sculptor István Ferenczy was the son of a locksmith but ended up training in copperplate engraving at the Vienna Academy. A master of marble statues, he wished to establish a sculpting school in his country. Eurydike and the Statue of Kölcsey remain two of his best-known works.

Edward John Trelawny was a British biographer, novelist and adventurer. He is famous for his friendship with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Handsome and dashing, he joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen, later writing about his experiences in Adventures of a Younger Son. His other well-known work is Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron.