Hesperium
Hesperium (also known as esperium; atomic symbol Es) was the name assigned to the element with atomic number 94, now known as plutonium.
It was named in Italian "Esperio" after a Greek name of Italy, Hesperia, "the land of the West".
The same team assigned the name ausonium to element 93, after Ausonia, a poetic name of Italy. By comparison, uranium, the heaviest of the primordial elements, has atomic number 92.

The discovery of the element, now discredited, was claimed by Enrico Fermi and a team of scientists at the University of Rome in 1934. Following the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, it was realized that Fermi's hesperium was a mixture of barium, krypton and other elements. The actual element was discovered several years later, and named plutonium.

Fascist authorities wanted one of the elements to be named "littorio" after the Roman "lictores" who carried the "fasces", a symbol appropriated by Fascism.
Q102500
atomic symbol
Concept
Q23809
atomic number
Concept
Q1102
plutonium
Concept
Q4822785
ausonium
Concept
Q410480
Ausonia
UNK
Q1098
uranium
Concept
Q759767
primordial element
Concept
Q8753
Enrico Fermi
PER
Q209344
University of Rome
ORG
Q11429
nuclear fission
Concept
Q1112
barium
Concept
Q888
krypton
Concept
Q59671
lictor
Concept
Q328712
fasces
Concept
Q4137660
Hesperium
Concept
1934-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1934
DATE
1938-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1938
DATE
+94^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
94
NUMBER
+93^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
93
NUMBER
+92^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
92
NUMBER
used by