Features - Notable Dates in History

4 August 1914	Britain declared war on Germany. The First World War resulted in Scottish losses of 110,000 lives; equivalent to 10% of the Scottish male population aged between sixteen and fifty years of age.
5 September 1914	The cruiser HMS Pathfinder was the first British naval vessel to be sunk by a torpedo fired by a U-boat; she was hit as she sailed to the south-east of the Isle of May at the entrance of the Forth. The torpedo was launched by U21 and scored a direct hit on the Pathfinder’s forward ammunition magazine. She sank in only four minutes with the loss of all but nine of her company.
8 August 1914	The first British troops landed in France.
19 October 1914	Leith flyweight Tancy Lee became the first Scot to win a European title when he stopped Percy Jones of Wales in the 14^th round in London, England.
22 October 1914	Private Henry May of Bridgeton, serving with the First Scottish Rifles, won the Victoria Cross for bravery at La Boutillerie.
3 November 1914	The armed patrol trawler Ivanhoe, which had been requisitioned by the Admiralty, hit the Black Rock near Leith while laying mines and sank.
17 November 1914	It was announced that income tax was to be doubled in the United Kingdom to finance the war.
27 November 1914	The Royal Navy purchased the Fairfield-built liner Compania and she was re-fitted as one of the world's first aircraft carriers complete with a 168 foot-long wooden flight deck stretching all the way from the bridge to her bows.
29 December 1914	Birth of Tom Weir, climber, writer and broadcaster, in Springburn, Glasgow.
13 January 1915	Death of Mary Slessor, missionary, after a prolonged bout of fever at Calabar, Nigeria. A former Dundee mill-girl, she was born at Aberdeen in 1848. ‘By her enthusiasm, self-sacrifice and greatness of character she earned the devotion of thousands of the natives among whom she worked, and the love and esteem of all Europeans irrespective of class or creed, with whom she came in contact.’ From an obituary in the Government Gazette
10 March 1915	The German submarine U12 launched an attack on several naval trawlers off the Isle of May. The German U-boat was chased by three Royal Navy destroyers: she tried to evade them but was rammed and sunk by HMS Ariel.
25 April 1915	Carnoustie-born George Samson won the Victoria Cross for his part in helping wounded soldiers to safety during the ill-fated landings at the Dardanelles. During the action the twenty-six year old petty officer was wounded 19 times.
7 May 1915	The Clydebank built liner the Lusitania torpedoed by a German submarine off the south of Ireland on her way from New York to Liverpool, England. Nearly 1200 of the 1959 passengers on board died. The four funnelled Lusitania, launched from John Brown's yard in 1906, was the world's largest, fastest and most luxurious liner. Her sinking led to the United States of America entering the First World War.
22 May 1915	Scotland's worst train disaster occurred with 227 deaths in triple collision at Quintinshill, near Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire. A troop train, carrying the Seventh Royal Scots from Leith to Liverpool, hit a stationary local train and the night express from Euston then ploughed into the wreckage. Two signalmen subsequently were jailed.
23 June 1915	Two German submarines practically wiped out the Lerwick fishing fleet with 17 vessels being reported sunk.
25 September 1915	The Battle of Loos began, in which Piper Daniel Laidlaw, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, won the Victoria Cross for mounting the parapet during heavy bombardment and playing his regiment "over the top".
26 September 1915	Death of James Keir Hardie, founder of the Scottish Labour Party, chairman of the Independent Labour Party, and MP for West Ham and Merthyr Tydfil, at Cumnock.
15 October 1915	HMS Hawke was sunk off the east coast of Scotland by submarine action and more than 400 of her crew perished.
11 November 1915	Birth of Dr Hamish Henderson, folklorist, soldier, poet and songwriter, at Blairgowrie. He did sterling work with the School of Scottish Studies and was a pioneer of the Scottish Folk Revival. His most famous song The Freedom Come-All Ye lives on. In 1983 he refused an OBE in protest at the nuclear arms policy of the Thatcher government.
10 December 1915	Douglas Haig was appointed commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). He remained in charge of the Western Front till the successful end of the First World War. After the war he dedicated his life to the Royal British Legion, catering for the welfare of the troops who served under him. “Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight to the end.” - Haig’s Order of the Day 12 April 1918
31 December 1915	Armoured cruiser Natal blew up and sank at her moorings in the Cromarty Firth. About 350 officers and men died along with 13 civilians, including children attending a Hogmanay party on board. Of the 283 survivors picked up, several died later. Unstable cordite in stern magazine was blamed for the explosion.
6 January 1916	The Allies began to evacuate Gallipoli.
15 February 1916	Twenty-year-old Black Watch private John Docherty was executed on the Western front for desertion; he was the first Kitchener volunteer put to death.
26 April 1916	Scots-born journalist Thomas Dickson, 32, was murdered in Dublin during the Easter Rising. The previous day he had been arrested by British troops along with his Irish journalist friend Patrick J MacIntyre. Although they had no part in the Rising, they were shot along with Irish pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, on the orders of Captain JC Bowen-Colthart. After a subsequent Court Martial, Bowen-Colthart was found guilty of the murders but declared to have been insane at the time the act was committed. He was detained in a criminal lunatic asylum.
12 May 1916	Edinburgh-born James Connolly, the last of the seven rebels who had signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic declaration at the start of the Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule, was executed. Wounded during the Rising he was shot tied to a chair.
2 August 1916	Death of Hamish MacCunn, Greenock born, 1868, composer who is best known for his overture 'Land of the Mountain and the Flood'.
29 January 1917	Loss of the K13, a revolutionary steam-driven submarine, in the Gareloch; 32 men died and almost 50 were rescued.
7 February 1917	The Clyde-built SS California, with 205 passengers and crew, was torpedo by a German submarine en route from New York to the Clyde. She sunk in seven minutes but some 162 survivors were taken to Glasgow.
19 June 1917	The House of Commons voted by a margin of 330 to give votes to women over 30.
9 July 1917	HMS Vanguard, a veteran of Jutland, accidentally blew up in Scapa Flow, with the loss of more than 800 men.
31 December 1917	Britain’s first-ever food rationing began. It was for sugar and the allowance was 8oz a week.
15 January 1918	Music Hall superstar Sunderland-born Mark Sheridan was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park. A Browning automatic revolver lay near his body and theories surrounding his death ranged from suicide to accidental death rehearsing an act.
21 January 1918	In a chaotic series of collusions involving battleships, destroyers and submarines during a night naval exercise off the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, 103 officers and ratings were lost. Two K-class submarines were sunk and two other submarines and a cruiser were seriously damaged.
6 February 1918	The Representation of the Peoples Act received Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30.
9 May 1918	John MacLean, Glasgow schoolmaster, labour leader and first Soviet Consul in Britain, tried in the High Court in Edinburgh for sedition.
11 November 1918	Armistice signed by Germany and Allies at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, at Compiegne, France.
21 November 1918	German High Seas Fleet handed over to British Fleet for internment at Scapa Flow in Orkney.
1 January 1919	Naval yacht Lolaire, carrying 260 Lewis men returning from war service, and 24 crew, struck a reef on approach to Stornoway Harbour at 2am. Within 20 yards of the shore, 205 died as the overloaded vessel foundered.
21 January 1919	Known as ‘Bloody Friday’ some forty people were injured when the ’40 Hours’ strikers clashed with riot police in George Square, Glasgow. Troops were sent to suppress what was seen to be a ‘Bolshevist rising’ and by next morning six tanks and one hundred army lorries were in the streets of Glasgow. Strike leaders Willie Gallacher and Emmanuel Shinwell were arrested and convicted of incitement and received short prison sentences.
28 April 1919	Two crew members were lost from Fraserburgh lifeboat at harbour entrance.
12 May 1919	A major hoard of Roman silver was uncovered by archaeologists working on Taprain Law, East Lothian.
21 June 1919	Seventy-two warships of the German fleet were scuttled in Scapa Flow, Orkney.
28 June 1919	Peace treaty between German representatives and Allied powers was signed in the Palace of Versilles, officially ending the First World War.
6 July 1919	The British airship R34 arrived at Mineola, New York, from East fortune, East Lothian, becoming the first airship to cross the Atlantic. The flight took 108 hours.
13 July 1919	The British airship R34 arrived in Norfolk, England, after the first transatlantic round flight having set out from East fortune, East Lothian, on 2 July.
11 August 1919	Death of Andrew Carnegie, Dunfermline-born, American steel industrialist and philanthropist.
11 November 1919	Armistice Day was commemorated for the first time with a two-minute silence.
20 April 1920	Birth of John Main, sailor, playwright and Man of the Theatre, diplomat and academic, in St Andrews, Fife. Following war service in the Royal Navy and return to university in 1948 he was professional assistant to the eminent director Tyrone Guthrie. At the second Edinburgh International Festival, he helped Guthrie stage an elaborate open-air version of ‘The Satire o the Thrie Estaites’ starring Duncan Macrae. After service as a diplomat he took up academic work at Aberdeen and then St Andrews Universities.
15 August 1920	A surrendered German torpedo-boat broke its moorings and badly damaged the rail bridge over the River Forth at Alloa.
15 March 1921	Women jury members sat at Glasgow Sheriff Court for the first time.
7 September 1921	The only British Cabinet meeting to take place outside London was held in the Town House, Inverness. Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was holidaying in Gairloch, called an emergency session to discuss Ireland. The Inverness Formula, which was agreed at the meeting, was used to form the Anglo-Irish Treaty setting up the Irish Free State.
20 September 1921	The 1914/1918 War Memorial, featuring a Gordon Highlander, was unveiled at Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. Set in a Garden of Remembrance the memorial was created by Aberdeen monumental mason Arthur Taylor.
9 October 1921	The Laird Line Glasgow-Dublin ferry Rowan sank, with the loss of 34 passengers and crew, off Wigtownshire after collision with two ships.
17 October 1921	Birth of George Mackay Brown, outstanding Orcadian poet, writer, dramatist and story-teller, at Stromness.
12 March 1922	The Kilrenny Burgh War memorial in Fife was unveiled and dedicated. The 23-foot high monument was designed by Kirkcaldy architect and sculptor Alexander Murdoch. In 2008 it was listed as a Category ‘B’ monument by Historic Scotland.
20 June 1922	Dingwall War Memorial was unveiled by Sir Hector Munro of Foulis. Situated on the burgh’s High Street, the memorial was designed by A G Joass and cast in bronze by Sir Alex Stevenson of London.
13 July 1922	Twelve miners were killed in an explosion at No 4 Pit at Plean Colliery, near Stirling.
2 August 1922	Death of Alexander Graham Bell, Edinburgh-born inventor of the telephone.
7 October 1922	The largest salmon caught by rod in the UK was landed by Georgina Ballantine from a boat on the Glendelvine stretch of the River Tay in Perthshire. Her salmon was a massive 64lb.
21 November 1922	Lossiemouth-born James Ramsay MacDonald was elected as leader of the British Labour Party.
14 December 1922	Stonehaven-born John Reith was appointed general manager of the fledgling BBC. He set about building up the BBC with immense vigour and the organisation bore his stamp for many years.
27 March 1923	Death of Sir James Dewar, Kincardine on Forth-born chemist and physicist, and inventor of the vacuum flask, in London.
21 April 1923	Three hundred emigrants from the Western Isles embarked at Stornoway for Canada and each received a copy of the scriptures in Gaelic.
25 September 1923	Forty miners died when water broke through from old workings and on to the 66-man nightshift at Redding No 23 pit, near Polmont, Stirlingshire. Five trapped men survived for ten days underground before being rescued.
1 October 1923	Sir Thomas Lipton received the freedom of his home-town the City of Glasgow.
10 October 1923	Susan Newall was hanged in Duke Street prison, Glasgow, for the murder of a boy. She was the last woman to be executed in Scotland.
2 December 1923	Death of East Wemyss-born Captain George Moodie, first captain of the famous tea-clipper Cutty Sark, at Auchtermuchty, Fife. He supervised the building of the Cutty Sark at the Dumbarton yard of Scott and Linton, and captained the first three voyages.
22 January 1924	Lossiemouth-born Ramsay MacDonald became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister.
11 February 1924	Glasgow Chamber of Commerce urged the Westminster Government to place orders for naval cruisers with Clyde Shipbuilders to help relieve unemployment.
15 April 1924	Birth of Rikki Fulton, actor and comedian, in Glasgow. Well-known for his comedy double act with Jack Milroy, ‘Francie and Josie’, and the popular BBC Scotland programme ‘Scotch and Wry’.
1 July 1924	Field Marshal Douglas Haig unveiled the National War Memorial in St John’s, Newfoundland.
20 August 1924	The Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell refused to run in the heats of the 100m at the Paris Olympics because it fell on a Sunday and it was against his religious convictions to do so. He had been tipped as the likely winner.
28 September 1924	A memorial statue erected at Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France, to the memory of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 51^st Highland Division who fell in the 1^st World War, was unveiled by Marechal Foch.
13 October 1924	Lossiemouth-born Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC (radio) on behalf of the British Labour Party.
16 May 1925	The Dundee War Memorial, situated on the prominent city landmark The Law, was unveiled.
7 July 1925	Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall was destroyed by fire.
30 October 1925	Helensburgh-born inventor John Logie Baird, from his attic workshop in London, England, produced the first moving image on his television screen. The model was a 15-year-old office boy, William Tauton, who had to be bribed with half-a-crown to sit for the experiment because he was frightened by bright lights.
11 February 1926	Birth of Sir Alexander Gibson, conductor and musical director of the Scottish National Orchestra, founder of Scottish Opera, in Motherwell.
19 February 1926	Birth of Charlie Cox, footballer (Heart of Midlothian and Motherwell), in Yoker, Glasgow. He was a member of the first Motherwell team to win the Scottish Cup beating Dundee 4-0 in the 1952 final. The crowd of 136,304 was the highest post-Second World War attendance at Hampden Park and the largest ever for a match not involving Celtic, Rangers or Scotland.
4 May 1926	The General Strike commenced, the first in the UK. It was called off on May 12.
7 May 1926	Woman’s suffrage in Britain was lowered from the age of 30 to 21.
22 November 1926	Publication of "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle" by Hugh MacDiarmid, Scotland's Greatest 20th Century poet and a founder member of the National Party of Scotland in 1928.
26 November 1926	Official launch date of the 'Scots Independent' published by Scots National League in support of Scottish Self Government. The first Editor was William Gillies, with Tom H Gibson as Business Manager.
17 March 1927	Death of James Scott Skinner, ‘The Strathspey King’, noted fiddler and composer, at Aberdeen.
16th April 1927	The Scottish Cup Final was broadcast live for the first time on radio. Celtic defeated East Fife 3-1 in front of 80,070 at Hampden Park. East Fife were the first Second Division club to contest the final in the 20th Century and only the fourth-ever (Renton 1895, Dumbarton 1897 and Kilmarnock 1898).
26 September 1927	The MacBrayne paddle-steamer Grenadier – a regular on the Iona-Staffa run – caught fire during the night at her berth at the North Pier, Oban. Three of the crew died in the fierce fire and she sank at her moorings and was subsequently scrapped.
17 January 1928	Birth of Matt McGinn, noted songwriter, folksinger and entertainer, in Calton, Glasgow. His topical songs, often of a political nature, quickly entered the folk tradition and he was a popular figure on the folk and concert circuit.
29 January 1928	Death of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, 1^st Earl Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (1915-1918) in London. He was buried at Dryburgh Abbey.
11 February 1928	Formation of the National Party of Scotland, a political party to promote the cause of Scottish Independence. It merged with the Scottish Party in 1934 to form the Scottish National Party.
29 March 1928	The House of Commons in London overwhelmingly passed the Equal Franchise Bill, giving the vote to all women aged 21 or over.
31 March 1928	Scotland became the first of 17 countries to defeat England at Wembley in a historic 5-1 international football international victory. The under-rated Scottish side became known as the ‘Wembley Wizards’ and the line-up was :- John Harkness (Queen’s Park), James Nelson (Cardiff City), Thomas Law (Chelsea), Jimmy Gibson (Aston Villa), Thomas Bradshaw (Bury), Jimmy McMullen (Manchester City, captain), Alex Jackson (Huddersfield), James Dunn (Hibernian), Hughie Gallacher (Newcastle), Alex James (Preston), Alan Morton (Rangers) Scorers: Jackson 3, 6 & 86 mins; James 44 & 67 mins
23 June 1928	Inaugural Bannockburn Day demonstration by the National Party of Scotland in Stirling. A large crowd were addressed by, amongst others, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, Lewis Spence and Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid), and pledged support for the new political party and its aim of achieving Independent National Status for Scotland.
3 July 1928	The world's first television transmission in colour was made by Helensburgh-born John Logie Baird at the Baird Studios in London, England.
8 August 1928	Birth of Peter Keenan, professional boxer and promoter, European, British and British Empire bantamweight champion, in Glasgow. He won two Lonsdale Belts outright and lost on points to South African Vic Toweel in a world title fight over 15 rounds in Johannesburg.
30 September 1928	First experimental pictures were broadcast by the BBC using the television form invented by John Logie Baird. Discovery of penicillin by Ayrshire-born Sir Alexander Fleming was announced. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.
15 October 1928	The voting age for women was reduced from 30 to 21 in Britain, making them equal with men.
10 December 1928	Death of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, leader of the Art Nouveau movement, architect of the Glasgow School of Art, Cranston’s Tea-rooms, and other buildings in and around Glasgow.
9 January 1929	Alexander Fleming used his newly-discovered antibiotic penicillin for the first time, Stuart Craddock, his assistant at St Mary’s Hospital in West London was suffering from an infection of the sinus cavity. Dr Fleming succeeded in destroying most of the staphylococcus bacteria by applying penicillin which he had discovered the previous September.
15 April 1929	Kirriemuir-born Sir James Barrie donated the copyright fee of his story ‘Peter Pan’ to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, England.
10 May 1929	Scottish Local Government Act came into force. It was abolished in 1974 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act. ‘An Act to transfer to county councils and to the town councils of certain burghs in Scotland functions of existing local authorities relating to poor relief, lunacy and mental deficiency, education, public health and other matters; to amend the law relating to local government in Scotland….’ From the title, Acts 19 and 20 George V. c.25.
7 June 1929	Lossiemouth-born Ramsay MacDonald announced the composition of Britain’s second Labour Government. It had no overall majority and was dependent on Liberal goodwill for survival.
2 September 1929	Birth of Joan MacKenzie, noted Gaelic singer and Mod Gold winner in 1955 (Aberdeen Mod), in Point, Lewis.
2 October 1929	Reunion of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland as the Church of Scotland.
31 December 1929	Sixty-nine children, aged between 5 and 14, were crushed, trampled or suffocated to death when panic broke out at a matinee showing of 'The Desperate Desperado' in the Glen Cinema at Paisley Cross in Paisley. The audience of children stampeded for the exit when smoke from a smouldering spool of film blew into the auditorium.
14 March 1930	6.000 people attended a rally in Perth calling for government action to save the farming industry from disaster.
18 April 1930	Scottish Trade Union Congress voted to boycott cinemas where 'talkies' had been introduced and live orchestras replaced.
15 June 1930	Playwright Sir James M Barrie opened the cricket pavilion that he had presented to his hometown of Kirriemuir. In his speech he recalled how, as a boy in Kirriemuir, he enjoyed playing cricket with his friends using bats made by a local joiner.
7 July 1930	Death of Edinburgh-born Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes, in Crowborough, Sussex, England.
29 August 1930	Evacuation of the population of St Kilda on economic grounds. The fall of the population from 73 in 1920 to 37 in 1928 led to the request by the islanders to move to the mainland.
28 November 1930	W Oliver Brown, candidate for the fledgling National Party of Scotland, polled 4,818 votes in the Renfrew East By-Election and became the first NPS candidate to save election deposit. The National Party of Scotland amalgamated with the Scottish Party in April 1934 to form the modern Scottish National Party.
22 December 1930	Death of Inveraray-born author and journalist Neil Munro at Helensburgh. He produced numerous historical novels but is best remembered for his Para Handy stories – the adventures of the skipper of a Clyde puffer and his crew.
13 February 1931	The Scottish Youth Hostels Association was formed.
27 April 1931	Eleven Scots enthusiasts attended the first meeting of The National Trust for Scotland, which was formerly incorporated on the following 1 May.
29 April 1931	Birth of Lonnie Donegan, ’King of Skiffle’, musician and singer, in Glasgow. His recording of ‘Rock Island Line’ proved a hit in both the USA and UK and between 1956-1962 he achieved 26 Top Ten Hits.
8 May 1931	A group of leaders from Scottish industry, commerce, trade unions and local authorities convened a meeting in Edinburgh which resulted in the formation of the Scottish National Development Council, later amalgamated with the Scottish Council for Industry and renamed as the Scottish Council Development and Industry.
6 August 1931	Scottish aviator Jim Mollinson completed pioneering flight from Australia to Britain in a record 214 hours.
5 September 1931	Death of Celtic and Scotland goalkeeper John Thompson, 'The Prince of Keepers'. John Thompson, who was born in Bowhill, Cardenden, Fife, was a regular for Celtic at 18 and played for Scotland in his teens. He is generally recognised as the best goalkeeper Scotland has ever produced. His early death resulted from a skull fracture after colliding with the knee of Rangers centre-forward Sam English as he bore down on the Celtic goal. He died in hospital the same day. His coffin was carried past 30.000 mourners in his home village. "Never was there a keeper who caught and held the fastest shots with such grace and ease." - Willie Maley, Celtic manager 1931
15 September 1931	12,000 Royal Navy sailors on 15 ships of the Atlantic Fleet went on strike at Invergordon in protest over cuts in pay.
27 October 1931	The National Government under Lossiemouth-born J Ramsay MacDonald won the largest General Election victory in British poll history, 554 seats to 56 for the opposition. The fledgling National Party of Scotland contested 5 constituencies polling 20,954 votes.
29 December 1931	Birth of Bobby Shearer, outstanding Glasgow Rangers captain and full-back, at Hamilton. He was capped four times for Scotland, all his caps came within a one-month period), and with Rangers won six League titles, three Scottish Cups and three Scottish league Cups.
6 July 1932	Birth in St Andrews of James ‘Tip’ Anderson, legendary golf caddie who helped American stars Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema to win three Open Championships between them. He was elected Golf Caddie of the Year in the United States in 1965.
18 August 1932	Scottish aviator Jim Mollison made the first west bound transatlantic solo flight, from Portmarnock, Ireland, to Pennfield, New Brunswick.
22 August 1932	The BBC used John Logie Baird's form of television for its inaugural broadcast - the first public television service in the UK.
27 October 1932	The British Government ordered withdrawal of ‘Greek Memories’ by Compton Mackenzie, author and founder of the National Party of Scotland (1928), because it revealed the identity of the head of the Secret Service during the First World War.
16 November 1932	Eleven killed in firedamp explosion at Cardowan Colliery, Lanarkshire.
8 November 1933	East Wemyss - born accordion maestro Jimmy Shand made his first record.
26 March 1934	Car driving tests were introduced.
7 April 1934	The Scottish National Party formed by the amalgamation of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party. The Honorary President of the new party was the Scottish writer, adventurer and former Westminster MP, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham. "The object of the Party is Self-Government for Scotland on a basis which will enable Scotland as a partner in the British Empire with the same status as England to develop its National Life to the fullest advantage." - from its first programme.
18 April 1934	Death of Catherine (Kate) Cranston, tea-room proprietor, at 34 Terreglas Avenue, Glasgow. She employed the services of architect Charles Rennie Macintosh, and his glittering Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street opened in 1903, and confirmed her standing in the tea-shop trade.
20 April 1934	The first public meeting of the Scottish National Party was held in the Central Hall, Tollcross, Edinburgh with Compton Mackenzie, Lord Rector of Glasgow University, and W Oliver Brown, prospective Nationalist candidate for East Renfrewshire, as guest speakers. The Scottish National Party was formed by the amalgamation of The National Party of Scotland and The Scottish Party.
28 September 1934	The Cunard-White Star Queen Mary launched at Clydebank. Built by John Brown and Sons Ltd it was then the world's largest liner. Gross tonnage: 81,235 tons. Length: 975.2 feet. Breadth: 118.6 feet. Depth: 68.5 feet. Speed: 28 knots.
7 February 1935	Death of Auchterless-born James Leslie Mitchell, outstanding author who wrote under the pen-name Lewis Grassic Gibbon, in Welwyn Garden City, Englnad, of a perforated ulcer. Best remembered for ‘A Scots Quair’, three novels around the central character of Chris Guthrie, recording the social changes wrought on Scotland by the First World War.
16 March 1935	Death of John James Macleod, physiologist, pioneer of insulin and Nobel laureate (in 1923), in Aberdeen.
1 June 1935	Driving tests in Britain were introduced by Leslie Hore-Belisha, and L-plates were made compulsory.
10 August 1935	Birth of John MacLeod of MacLeod, 29^th Chief of MacLeod, at Esslemont, Ellon, Aberdeenshire. He caused an uproar in March 2000 when he attempted to sell the Black Cuillin range on Skye in order to fund repairs at Dunvegan Castle.
9 September 1935	Glasgow flyweight boxer Benny Lynch became the first ever Scottish world champion by defeating England's Jackie Brown in his native city of Manchester. The fight at the Belle Vue Arena lasted only 4 minutes and 42 seconds as Lynch floored Brown eight times in taking the World, European and Flyweight titles.
23 October 1935	The Provost of Stirling accompanied by the town’s magistrates, in full regalia, officially opened and paraded over a new footbridge over the Forth at Cambuskenneth. The bridge replaced a ferry run by Thomas Dow.
8 March 1936	Oor Willie and The Broons cartoon strips made their first appearance in The Sunday Past, drawn by the brilliant English-born illustrator Dudley D Watkins.
27 May 1936	The Queen Mary, Clyde-built, left Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage to New York.
16 September 1936	Benny Lynch successfully defended his World Flyweight title in front of 35,000 fans at Shawfiel, Glasgow.. He knocked out Englishman Pat Palmer, London, in the eighth round.
15 December 1936	The Zoological Society of Glasgow was founded. After the Second World War a zoo at Calderpark was opened on 9 July 1947. Calderpark Zoo closed in August 2003.
19 January 1937	Benny Lynch outpointed American Small Montana, over 15 rounds, to retain his World Flyweight title at the Empire Pool, Wembley, London, England.
17 April 1937	A 'British' attendance record at a football match was set when 149,547 watched Scotland play England at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Scotland won 3-1.
19 June 1937	Death of Sir James M Barrie, novelist and dramatist, creator of the character Peter Pan in London. Elected as Rector of St Andrews University his moving Rectoral Address on Courage (1922) is still recalled. His birthplace in Kirriemuir is now maintained by The National trust for Scotland.
13 October 1937	30,000 fans saw World Flyweight Champion Benny Lynch knock out English challenger Peter Kane in the 13th round at Shawfield.
9 November 1937	Death of Lossiemouth-born James Ramsay MacDonald, former Prime Minister, 1924, 1929-31, and 1931-35, at sea en route for South America.
10 December 1937	Thirty-five passengers were killed and 179 injured in a rail crash when points became blocked by snow on the Edinburgh-Glasgow line. An express train from Edinburgh hit a stationary train from Dundee.
17 February 1938	John Logie Baird’s first public experimental demonstration of colour television took place with a transmission from Chrystal Palace to the Dominion Theatre, London.
31 March 1938	Birth of Ian Gray, noted scriptwriter for DC Thomson’s The Beano and Dandy comics and folk song enthusiast, in Arbroath.
27 April 1938	Extra-time goals from Larry Millar and Danny McKerrell enabled Second Division East Fife to win the Scottish Cup, 4-2, in a final replay against Kilmarnock (following a 1-1 draw) at Hampden Park in front of 91,700 spectators. The Methil team were the first, and to date only, lower division club to win the coveted trophy. The history-making East fife line-up was – Milton, Laird, Tait, Russell, Sneddon, Harvey, Adams, McLeod, McCartney, Millar, McKerrell
29 June 1938	Benny Lynch was stripped of the World Flyweight title when he failed to make the weight for a defence against Jackie Jurich of California at love Street, paisley. A non-title bout went ahead and Lynch knocked out his opponent in the twelfth round.
9 July 1938	Gas masks were first issued to the civilian population in Britain in anticipation of the Second World War.
30 July 1938	The first edition of the Beano comic, published by Dundee-based family firm DC Thomson, went on sale.
15 August 1938	Clyde-built liner Queen Mary set a record for the eastbound crossing of the Atlantic. Having set a record on the westward crossing, she completed the return journey two minutes short of four days.
13 September 1938	Birth of John Smith, Labour Lanarkshire MP from 1970 and leader of the British Labour Party, from 1992, at Dalmally, Argyll.
27 September 1938	The largest passenger liner ever built, the Queen Elizabeth, was launched at John Brown’s Clydebank yard.
2 January 1939	An all-time record of 118,730 attended a derby game between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox which the home team won 1-0.
3 September 1939	Britain and France declared war on Germany. Within hours of the declaration of war, the SS Athenia was sunk in the Atlantic, after being torpedoed by a German U-boat, 200 miles west of the Hebrides en route from Liverpool, England, to Montreal. The first survivors were brought to the Clyde port of Greenock. Ninety-three lives were lost.
16 September 1939	Scotland experienced first air raid of Second World War when German bombers attacked Rosyth Naval base in Fife inflicting minor damage and losing three aircraft in the process.
14 October 1939	The Royal Navy Battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed by a German submarine in Scapa Flow, Orkney, with the loss of 810 lives.
28 October 1939	An explosion of coal-dust at 3.45am at the Valleyfield Colliery, near Rosyth, Fife, killed 35 miners.
1 December 1939	The first shipping casualty of the Second World War in the Forth was the Norwegian-owned vessel Arcturus, which was attacked and torpedoed by German U-boat U21.
2 December 1939	The cargo ship Rudolf, which was registered in neutral Sweden, hit a mine and sank off St Abbs Head.
17 December 1939	The Danish-owned cargo ship Bogo sank off Fife Ness while en route to Methil Docks.
21 December 1939	A large explosion shook Leith Docks when a small boom-defence vessel, Bayonet, blew up (possibly by a mine). Planes of the City of Edinburgh squadron, based at Drem, were scrambled to search for suspected German bombers. In error they shot down an RAF bomber over the Forth.
3 February 1940	The Norwegian cargo steamer Tempo was bombed by a German raider off St Abbs Head.
11 February 1940	Death of John Buchan, First Baron Tweedsmuir, novelist (notably 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'), former MP and latterly Governor-General of Canada.
24 February 1940	The British-registered Royal Archer hit a mine off Inchkeith Island, en route from London to Leith. The crew and sole passenger succeeded in abandoning ship before she sank and were picked up by the trawler Tourmaline and landed in Leith.
26 February 1940	In a morale-boosting visit King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured Leith Docks and the shipbuilding yard of Henry Robb.
16 March 1940	First Scottish civilian was casualty, James Ibister, was killed in a German air-raid on the tiny hamlet of Brig o Waithe, Orkney.
27 May 1940	Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of British and French troops from the Dunkirk beaches began, and ended on 4 June.
29 May 1940	LNER paddle-steamer Waverley sank in the English Channel during the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk.
4 June 1940	The evacuation of Dunkirk, which had begun on 27 May, was completed. Thousands of little ships, under heavy German attacks, returned to the English south coast with 338,226 soldiers.
12 June 1940	Following the Dunkirk evacuation, the 51^st Highland Division surrendered to the Germans at St Valery, France.
17 June 1940	The undefended Clyde-built Lancastria carrying 8,000 troops evacuated from France was bombed and sank off north-west France by the Luftwaffe with some 4,000 casualties. A D-notice prohibited newspapers and the BBC from reporting the loss. The 16,000-tonne cruise ship built by William Breadmore & Co was commandeered by the Government on the outbreak of World War Two.
28 June 1940	Birth of Roderick (Roddy) Wright, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, in Glasgow. A Gaelic speaker he resigned in September 1996 following the revelation of his affair with a divorced mother of three, Kathleen Macphee. They subsequently married and after a period in England moved to New Zealand.
2 July 1940	More than 440 interned Italians, many from families settled in Scotland, drowned when a German submarine sank British prison ship Arandora Star on her way to Canada.
19 July 1940	First daylight raid by the German Luftwaffe on Glasgow: little damage was reported.
27 July 1940	The Leith-based SS Salvestria, originally the passenger liner Cardiganshire, having sailed safely from the southern tip of South America, strayed from the swept channel on her approach to Leith and detonated an acoustic mine which had been dropped by a German aircraft. She had been converted into a mobile oil-refinery to process oil obtained from whale blubber and was bringing a cargo of this vitally-needed commodity back to Scotland when she was lost off the island of Inchkeith, within sight of her home-port and final destination Leith.
10 October 1940	The Dutch-registered cargo vessel Arizona sank after hitting a mine off Elie Ness, Fife.
15 October 1940	The Leith-based Gibson Line vessel Halland, which had been requisitioned for the duration of the hostilities by the Ministry of Transport, was attacked from the air off Dunbar. She was badly hit and sank quickly, possibly because of the heavy cargo of bagged cement in her holds.
3 November 1940	During a German air-raid a new Cooperative Society store in North Berwick was destroyed.
22 November 1940	The steam lighter Glen, which was carrying a cargo of ammunition, was attacked by German aircraft off Rosyth, Fife, and sank near the Royal Navy Ammunition Supply Depot at Crombie Point.
23 November 1940	The Royal Navy launch Good Design hit a mine off Inchkeith in the Forth. The explosion was so severe that the little craft was blown in two and two of the six-man crew were killed.
27 December 1940	A trawler Ben Gulvain, which was on mine-sweeping duties for the Admiralty, detonated a mine, off Inchkeith. She survived the blast, and, after repairs, continued in service until 1946.
16 January 1941	Death of Archibald Gordon (AG) Macdonell, writer, journalist and broadcaster, in Oxford, Best known for his controversial book ‘My Scotland’ (1937) and his gentle satire ‘England Their England’ (1933) which gained him the James Tait Black award.
17 January 1941	An envoy of United States President Franklin D Roosevelt mat Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Glasgow’s North British Hotel and pledged American support against Nazi Germany.
21 January 1941	Resignation of Sir Robert Boothby, Unionist MP for East Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire, as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Food after a Select Committee investigation into his financial dealings.
23 January 1941	A sea-mine exploded near lady’s rock at West Wemyss, fife, killing 15-year-old Peter Graham and four miners. They had been dragging a loose mine ashore with ropes when it exploded.
4 February 1941	The 8,000-ton cargo ship Politician went aground on Eriskay, with a cargo of luxuries, including 250,000 bottles of whisky, bound for New Orleans, USA, and Kingston, Jamaica. The wreck was immortalised by Sir Compton Mackenzie in his novel 'Whisky Galore', later made into an Ealing film comedy which was filmed on Barra.
8 February 1941	Labour MP Tom Johnston appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland in the Westminster Wartime Coalition Government. The post was not part of the War Office. He was acknowledged as one of the best-ever Scottish Secretary’s of State.
3 March 1941	The audience in the New County Cinema, Haddington, had a narrow escape when a nearby garage and shops were destroyed in a German air-raid.
13 March 1941	First night of the bombing raid by the German Luftwaffe on Clydebank, known as The Clydebank Blitz.
14 March 1941	Second night of The Clydebank Blitz by the German Luftwaffe, which left the town devastated with an estimated 500 fatalities.
12 April 1941	Death of Charles Murray, civil engineer and poet, at Banchory, Aberdeenshire. He worked in South Africa for many years but wrote mainly in his native Scots and is best remembered for his poem ‘The Whistle’.
6 May 1941	In the last German bombing attack on the Clyde area, Greenock was worst hit, with 280 dead.
10 May 1941	Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy parachuted on to the Duke of Hamilton's estate, claiming to be on a peace mission. He was arrested, found guilty of War Crimes and imprisoned in Spandau Prison until his death in 1987.
24 May 1941	The Clyde-built 42,000-ton battle-cruiser HMS Hood, the world’s largest warship, following a refit at Rosyth, Fife, was sunk by the German flagship Bismark in the Denmark Strait, 13 miles off the coast of Greenland. Only three of her 1,421 crew survived.
2 June 1941	Two adults and eight children died when a sea mine exploded on the foreshore at Buckhaven, Fife. Owing to wartime regulations the media were not allowed to fully report the incident and grieving locals were told to keep the tragedy to themselves. The casualties were Robert Burrell (31), George Irvine (13), George (15) and Robert Jenson (14), Joe (13) and William Kinnear (10), John Thomson (12), Henry Walton (14), Henry (37) and James Wilkie (13).
17 July 1941	Death of Charles Melvin, who had won the Victoria Cross in 1917 while serving as a Private with the 2^nd Battalion of the Black Watch in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He was awarded the VC for “most conspicuous bravery” during the Battle of Istabulat against the Turks.
18 September 1941	German bombers failed in an attempt to bomb Queen Street Station in Glasgow – bombs fell on George Square but caused little damage.
20 October 1941	The keel of the Royal Navy’s largest and last battleship Vanguard was laid at Clydebank. She was launched on 30 November 1944.
5 November 1941	Commercial Bar in Fraserburgh received a direct hit from a German bomb. Its owner Peter O’Hare and his wife were killed along with over 30 of their customers.
2 December 1941	All single women aged 20-30 were called up for war work.
21 December 1941	The exiled King Haakon VII of Norway attended the launch of a 7073-ton cargo vessel built for the Norwegian Government at the Whiteinch yard of Barclay, Curle and Company. The ship, named King Haakon VII, was launched by Mrs Sunde, wife of the Minister of Supply in the Norwegian Government in exile.
19 January 1942	A Wellington bomber, on a training mission from RAF Lossiemouth, crashed into a hillside close to Braemar Castle, killing all six airmen, including Canadian pilot Robert Jackson.
15 May 1942	The Clyde-built liner Queen Mary arrived at Greenock with nearly 10,000 US troops on board.
25 August 1942	Prince George, Duke of Kent, younger brother of King George VI, died on active service when his Sunderland flying boat crashed at Eagles Rock near Dunbeath, Caithness, en route to Iceland.
2 October 1942	HMS Curacao sank off Donegal, with the loss of 338 lives, after a collision with the Cunard liner Queen Mary, which was carrying thousands of troops and zig-zagging to avoid U-boats. The Clyde-built liner sliced her escort Caracao in half and she sank within three minutes. Only 26 crew members survived. The liner had been instructed not to stop to pick up survivors because of the danger from U-boats.
12 October 1942	Prime Minister Winston Churchill was awarded the Freedom of Edinburgh in the city’s Usher Hall. Prior to his acceptance speech in the evening he was treated for a throat infection by surgeon Dr Douglas Guthrie in his special train in the railway sidings at Dalmeney. The Prime Minister travelled to Edinburgh after visiting Royal Navy vessels at Scapa Flow, Orkney.
9 December 1942	Birth of Billy Bremner, fiery midfield footballer and manager, at Stirling. He was a major player at English club Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s and captained Scotland at World Cup level (54 caps). He was voted Leeds United’s greatest player and inducted to both the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and English Football Hall of Fame.
24 December 1942	General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Government in exile, and Admiral Philippe Auboyneau, commander-in-chief of the Free French navy, visited the Free French naval base at Greenock.
27 March 1943	Aircraft carrier HMS Dasher exploded and sank off Arran in the Firth of Clyde, with loss of more than 350 crew members. There were 149 survivors.
21 April 1943	In a pre-planned air raid 25 Dornier 217s of the Kampf-Geschwader Group 2 swept into Aberdeen from the north of the city as dusk fell causing damage in the Woodside, Hilton, Cattofield, Kittybrewster and George Street areas. The toll was heavy : 98 people were killed and a similar number seriously injured. Although Aberdeen was the most frequently bombed city in Scotland during World War Two, most of the raids were of 'a hit and run' nature which did not cause extensive damage or loss of life.
19 June 1943	Flyweight boxer Jackie Paterson followed in the footsteps of Benny Lynch by winning the world title at Hampden park, Glasgow. He spectacularly knocked out Englishman Peter Kane after only 61 seconds of the first round.
11 November 1943	The Admiralty requisitioned an area of about 15 square miles, from east of the village of Fearn to just outside Portmahomack, for military purposes. Between 800 and 900 people, including the entire village of Inver, were given a month to empty their home and more than 40 farms had the same amount of time to move or sell their livestock, equipment and crops. The operation was carried out in complete secrecy and the area was used for secret training for the D-Day landings.
17 February 1944	In a three-cornered contest, Douglas Young, Chairman of the Scottish National Party, took 41% of the vote in the Kirkcaldy Burghs By-Election, ( caused by the death of Labour MP T Kennedy ), as runner-up to the successful Labour Party candidate T F Hubbard.
6 June 1944	D-Day – the Allied landings began on the coast of Normandy.
11 July 1944	US Staff Sergeant Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion, was in Glasgow for a ‘meet the troops’ visit. He boxed an exhibition match and played golf at Douglas Park.
30 September 1944	Birth of Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, Celtic and Scotland (23 caps), at Viewpark, Bothwell. One of the ‘Lisbon Lions’ he won a European Cup winners medal with Celtic in 1967.
30 November 1944	The Royal Navy’s largest and last battleship, Vanguard, was launched at Clydebank, after 3 ½ years construction.
12 April 1945	First Westminster Parliamentary victory for the Scottish National Party in the Motherwell and Wishaw by-election. Dr Robert D McIntyre won the election in a straight fight with Labour by a majority of 617 votes.
7 May 1945	Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
20 May 1945	Thirty German u-boats brought in under escort to Kyle of Lochalsh and 1,100 crewmen were sent south by rail as prisoners.
15 June 1945	Family allowance payments were introduced in Britain – five shillings (25p) a week for the second child and subsequent children, no payment being made for the firstborn.
16 March 1946	The American liberty ship ‘Bryan Darnton’ – named after a New York Times war correspondent killed during action in 1943 – ran aground off Sanda, two miles off the southerly tip of the Mull of Kintyre, during an easterly gale, All 54 passengers and crew were rescued by lifeboats before she broke up.
13 April 1946	Scotland defeated England 1-0 in the Victory International at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Jimmy Delaney scored the winning goal in front of a crowd of 139,468 who saw Scotland line up : Brown (Rangers), D Shaw (Hibs), J Shaw (Rangers), Campbell (Morton), Brennan (Newcastle Utd), Husband (Partick Thistle), Waddell (Rangers), Dougal (Birmingham City), Delaney (Manchester Utd), Hamilton (Aberdeen), Liddell (Liverpool).
14 June 1946	Death of John Logie Baird, Helensburgh-born inventor and pioneer of television.
10 July 1946	Jackie Paterson made his first defence of the World Flyweight Championship title, defeating Liverpool’s Joe Curran on points over 15 rounds at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in front of a crowd of 45,000.
25 July 1946	A Forfar-bound train hit a bus with around 20 people aboard after it crashed through the level crossing at Balmuckety, two miles from Kirriemuir. Seven passengers, all from Forfar, were killed outright and a further two died later.
6 August 1946	Death of Benny Lynch, Scotland's first ever World Boxing Champion, at the age of 33. The funeral of the former World Flyweight Champion was attended by 2,000.
31 August 1946	The Edinburgh Film Festival, the first film festival in the United Kingdom, was opened by Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Sir William Falconer at the Playhouse Cinema. Originally showing documentaries the fledgling festival developed into an international film festival ranking with Cannes and Berlin.
10 January 1947	Fifteen miners died in explosion at Burngrange Colliery, Midlothian, caused by flame from open acetylene lamp.
1 April 1947	School-leaving age was raised to 15 in Britain.
14 April 1947	A Government report said that of almost one million houses built in Scotland before 1914, 400,000 were without proper sanitary conditions.
6 May 1947	East Kilbride was designated Scotland’s first new town under the Clyde Valley Regional Plan. The East Kilbride Development Corporation was established in 1948 and foundations for the first new buildings were laid a year later.
18 July 1947	The first official night horse-racing meeting in Britain was held at Hamilton Park.
17 August 1947	Opening of the Edinburgh International Festival, the first major post-war Festival of Music and the Arts in Europe. The first Director was Randolph Bing.
6 September 1947	The first World Pipe Band Championships was held at Murrayfield, Edinburgh. The World Championship was won by Bowhill Pipe Band from Fife.
9 October 1947	A crowd of 45,000 turned out at Hampden Park, Glasgow, to watch an American demonstration of a helicopter’s capabilities – lifting off and landing time after time. For this purpose the ground was registered as a civil airport.
1 November 1947	East Fife became the first Second division club to win the Scottish League Cup with a 4-1 replay victory over Falkirk in front of a 30,664 crowd at Hampden Park. Following a 0-0 draw a hat-trick an opener from Tommy Adams and a hat-trick from Davie Duncan brought the League Cup to Methil. East Fife went on to be that season’s Second Division League Champions and win promotion to the First Division.
14 December 1947	Death of Will Fyfe, comedian and music hall entertainer, at St Andrews.
23 March 1948	Jackie Paterson, Glasgow, lost his world flyweight title to Ireland’s Rinty Monaghan in Belfast. Paterson was knocked out in the 7^th round.
2 July 1948	A Sea Fury plane, heading from Donibristle air base to Crail, burst into flames when approaching East Wemyss. At the cost of his own life the pilot, Lt Commander Wilfred Nevill Waller, steered the craft away from the village and crash-landed to the north.
5 July 1948	The Westminster Labour Government introduced the National Health Service, inspired by Aneurin Bevan. It supplied free medical treatment and free prescriptions for glasses, teeth and wigs.
15 March 1949	Clothes rationing ended after eight years.
4 May 1949	Thirteen women and girls died in a fire which destroyed Grafton’s four-storey gown store in Argyle Street, Glasgow.
1 October 1949	Henry Morris (East Fife) scored the first ever Scottish goal in a World Cup qualifying game against Northern Ireland in Belfast. Scotland won the game 8-2 and Henry Morris, in his only international appearance, scored a hat-trick.
26 February 1950	Death of Sir Harry Lauder, international music hall star, singer and comedian, at Lauder Ha’, Strathaven, Lanarkshire. After early success in Scotland he was booked for a US tour, the first of 22 American triumphs. His famous song ‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’ was written after his son John was killed in action during World War 1.
22 August 1950	Fifty-four- year –old William ‘Ned’ Barnie became the first Scot to swim the English Channel. The Edinburgh swimmer completed the crossing from France to England in 14 hours 45 minutes. He went on to swim the reverse journey on 28 July 1951 and 19 days later completed his third crossing. At the time of his initial crossing he was the oldest ever successful Channel swimmer, a record he held until 1978.
7 September 1950	An area, the size of a football pitch, collapsed into the working at Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery, Ayrshire, trapping 129 miners 720 ft underground. In a huge rescue operation via old workings at Bank Colliery, 116 men were saved, but 13 died, as well as one rescue worker.
25 December 1950	Four young Scots, led by Ian Hamilton, retrieved the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey, London, England.
29 January 1951	Death of Dr Osborne Henry Mavor, the playwright ‘James Bridie’, in Glasgow, His works included ‘The Anatomist’ and he founded Glasgow’s citizens’ Theatre.
12 April 1951	The Stone of Destiny, removed from beneath the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey, London, on the previous Christmas Eve by Scottish Nationalists, was returned to Westminster Abbey after being found at Arbroath Abbey.
4 November 1951	Bill Speakman-Pitt won the Victoria Cross defending a hill with the King's Own Scottish Borderers against thousands of Chinese troops during the Korean War.
7 November 1951	The first floodlight match ever played in Scotland was a Stenhousemuir v Hibernian friendly at Ochilview. The lights, only slightly better than streetlights, were not considered to be powerful enough for a competitive game.
16 November 1951	The original Communion vessels of the Old Barres Church in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, were gifted to the Bantu Church in Africa.
14 March 1952	The first TV programme to be broadcast in Scotland showed the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society performing the Duke of Edinburgh Reel. They were celebrating the opening of Kirk o Shotts station in Lanarkshire.
19 April 1952	Having lost 5-1 to Dundee in the Scottish League Cup earlier in the season, Motherwell took revenge in front of a crowd of 136,000 at Hampden Park. After a goalless first half, strikers from Jimmy Watson, Willie Redpath, Wilson Humphries and Archie Kelly, saw Motherwell win the Scottish Cup for the first time.
23 June 1952	A controversial acquisition, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross, went on display at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery. It was voted Scotland’s favourite painting in 2005.
27 September 1952	The Queen Mother unveiled the Commando Monument at Spean Bridge. The monument, sculpted by Scott Sutherland, commemorated the commandos who fell in World War II.
5 December 1952	The Ness district on the Isle of Lewis was selected as an area for influenza vaccine-trials.
10 December 1952	Caithness Education Committee rejected a plan to supply pupils with a book entitled ‘ABC Guide to the Coronation’ because it only contained English history.
21 January 1953	Glenbervie churchyard, where relatives of Robert Burns are buried, was closed on order of the sheriff because of overcrowding.
9 February 1953	All but one of the crew of seven aboard the Fraserburgh lifeboat John and Charles Kennedy drowned when she capsized at the harbour entrance after escorting several yawls to safety. Hundreds of townspeople saw the tragedy but were unable to assist because of the heavy seas.
16 April 1953	The Royal Yacht HMS Britannia was launched by the Queen from John Brown’s yard, Clydebank. She was commissioned at sea on 11 January 1954.
20 May 1953	Celtic beat Hibernian 2-0 with goals from Neil Mochan and Jimmy Walsh to win the Coronation Cup final at Hampden Park.
24 June 1953	The Honours of Scotland, the Crown, Sword of State, and Sceptre of the Scottish Kings, were carried in procession before Queen Elizabeth on her first state visit to Scotland after her accession in 1953. It was the first occasion that the regalia had been borne in public since the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822.
8 August 1953	The north-bound Royal Scot London Euston to Glasgow Central express was derailed at Abington, South Lanarkshire, as it cruised downhill from Beattock Summit. The engine and six coaches passed safely, then a ‘buckle’ caused by high temperatures, derailed the remaining seven coaches. The majority of the passengers sustained shock, minor cuts and bruises.
24 October 1953	East Fife became the first club to win the Scottish League Cup for a third time with a 3-2 victory over Partick Thistle in front of a crowd of 88,529 at Hampden Park, Glasgow.
27 October 1953	Six of the seven members of the crew of the Arbroath lifeboat, Robert Lindsay, drowned when their boat capsized in Arbroath Harbour just before dawn after a fruitless all-night search with the Anstruther lifeboat for the source of flares reported by Elie Coastguard. Returning to station, she attempted to run before the seas into harbour but went over. The only survivor, local fisherman Archie Smith, managed to grab a rocket line fired from the shore. It was widely surmised at the time that the distress flares had been fired by the Dundee sand ship Islandmagee which was lost that week with her crew of six on passage from Dundee to Leith.
25 December 1954	Twenty-eight passengers and crew died when BOAC Stratocruiser crashed at 3.30am on landing at Prestwick Airport, overturned and caught fire at the edge of the main runway. There were three survivors.
11 March 1955	Death of Sir Alexander Fleming, born near Darval 1881, discoverer of penicillin 1928, and Nobel prize-winner in 1945.
21 March 1955	US evangelist Billy Graham began a seven-week-all Scotland crusade at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall.
23 April 1955	The Scottish Cup Final was broadcast live on television for the first time. A crowd of 106,111 watched Clyde draw 1-1 with Celtic. Clyde won the replay 1-0.
10 November 1955	In one of Edinburgh’s most spectacular fires of the decade, the boot and shoe warehouse of C W Carr Aitkman in Jeffrey Street was destroyed.
11 November 1955	C & A Modes department store in Princes Street, Edinburgh, was so severely damaged by fire that it required complete rebuilding. The blaze happened less than 24 hours after a spectacular night fire destroyed a Jeffrey Street warehouse.
14 December 1955	An order, designating 4,150 acres of the parish of Cumbernauld a New Town, came into force.
7 March 1956	The first-ever floodlit Scottish league match was played at Ibrox with Rangers recording a decisive 8-0 victory over visitors Queen of the South in the First Division.
29 July 1956	Edinburgh's Ecurie Ecosse sports-car racing-team, Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart, shocked international racing by winning the Le Mans 24-hour classic.
21 September 1956	Death of legendary Rangers manager Bill Struth, aged 81, at Glasgow. He was appointed as the club’s second-ever manager in 1920, following the death of William Wilson and remained in charge for 34 years. He led Rangers to 34 trophies, including the club’s first league and cup double in 1927/28 and the first treble in Scottish football in 1948/49. In 2006 Rangers renamed the Ibrox main stand as the Bill Struth Main Stand in his honour.
25 September 1956	Inauguration of the first transatlantic telephone cable running between Oban and Newfoundland.
4 October 1956	Scotland’s High Constable, the Countess of Erroll, unveiled a cairn at Loch nan Uamh commemorating the departure of Prince Charles Edward Stewart from France on 20 September 1946. As the Countess unveiled the cairn, its builder John MacKinnon of Arisaig played a Pibroch in salute.
20 October 1956	Dundee’s last-ever tram No 25 was watched by more than 5,000 people as it left the Maryfield depot for the final run to the Lochee depot.
16 November 1956	The last tramcar ran in Edinburgh – driver James Kay and conductor Andrew Birrell.
2 December 1956	Lightweight boxer Dick McTaggart, Dundee, won Olympic Gold in Melbourne when he outpointed German Harry Kurschal in the final. Four years later he won the Olympic Bronze in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
6 January 1957	Five members of crew lost when fishery cruiser Vaila sank off Lewis.
9 May 1957	A spectacular blaze at Bell’s Brae, Edinburgh, destroyed the three-storey premises of William Mutrie & Sons, one of Britain’s biggest theatrical costumiers, about 90.000 costumes were lost.
18 August 1957	J Norman Barclay, Helensburgh, became the first man to cross the Irish Sea on water-skis - the journey took him one hour and 20 minutes.
18 October 1957	Two RAF servicemen sacrificed their lives crash-landing a Meteor jet on the Dunnikier Estate, Kirkcaldy, in a heroic attempt to avoid built-up areas after engine failure. Flight Lieutenant Mike Withey of Malvern, Worcestershire, and Senior Aircraftman D McLoughlin, of Glasgow, both died in the crash.
1 November 1957	The Bawbee Bridge, connecting Leven and Methil, Fife, was opened by John S Maclay, Secretary of State for Scotland. The new single-span bridge replaced a three-arched stone bridge built in 1840.
19 November 1957	Seventeen men died in an explosion at the Kames Colliery, Muirkirk, Ayrshire. The blast, thought to have been caused by a naked flame igniting gases in the atmosphere, also injured a further 12 of the 169 men who were working in the pit.
14 December 1957	Nine miners died in explosion at Lindsay Colliery in Fife. The report on the disaster blamed "a match struck for the purpose of smoking".
20 February 1958	Film actor James Robertson Justice was installed as Rector of Edinburgh University (elected November 1957) in the McEwan Hall. Although born in London, England, his father was an Aberdonian, he always claimed that he had been born in Scotland on Skye. He was elected for a further term in November 1963. “I will be taking a considerable interest in the welfare of the undergraduate body. The Rector is second only to the Lord Chancellor, who is the senior figure of the University. The Rector is in fact the representative of the student body. The Rector in all continental Universities has the most enchanting title, because he is always addressed as Your Magnificence. Unfortunately we haven’t got this in Scotland, which is a shame because I rather like the idea of being addressed as Your Magnificence!”
3 May 1958	The last tram ran through the streets of Aberdeen.
11 July 1958	Notorious murderer Peter Manuel was hung in Barlinnie Jail, Glasgow. He had been found guilty of eight murders between 2 January 1956 and 1 January 1958 in Lanarkshire and Glasgow.
18 October 1958	Aberdeen-born Denis Law, of Huddersfield Town, became the youngest footballer to play for Scotland. He was 18 years and 7 months old when he played against Wales at Cardiff. Scotland won 3-0.
21 November 1958	Construction of the Forth Road Bridge began.
5 December 1958	Queen Elizabeth dialled Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Sir Ian Anderson Johnston-Gilbert, from Bristol, England, to inaugurate the first direct trunk call (STD).
9 January 1959	Fishery cruiser Freya capsized near Wick, with the loss of three crew members.
28 January 1959	Two women passengers and the driver died when a Glasgow train caught fire after collision with a lorry.
31 January 1959	Highland League club Fraserburgh caused a major shock in the first round of the Scottish Cup with a 1-0 home victory over top-ranking Dundee. A Johnny Strachan goal for The Broch just a minute before the interval and some frantic defending saw Fraserburgh earn a notable victory.
2 May 1959	Chapelcross nuclear power station, near Annan in Dumfriesshire, the first in Scotland, was opened.
18 September 1959	Forty-seven miners at Auchengeich Colliery, Chryston, Lanarkshire, were trapped and died when the bogies carrying them to work ran into smoke 300 yards from the pit bottom, 1,000 ft below ground. Only one of the squad escaped in Scotland's worst pit disaster of the century. Later the same evening the decision was taken to flood the burning pit.
30 October 1959	Death of Jim Mollison, Scottish aviator and holder of many flying records.
14 November 1959	The Dounreay fast reactor went into operation.
6 December 1959	Twelve men drowned when the Aberdeen trawler George Robb went aground at Duncansby Head as winds reached Force 15 (110 mph) round Scottish coasts. The 360-ton Leith coaster Servus, bound for Wick, also became a total loss, but her crew of eight were rescued by the Cromarty lifeboat before she was driven ashore near Dunbeath Castle.
7 December 1959	The Broughty Ferry lifeboat, Mona, was launched in the early morning, as severe gales. Continued into a tenth day, to go to the aid of the drifting North Carr light vessel. At 9am Carnoustie Coastguard sighted the missing lifeboat aground at Buddon Ness. The bodies of seven of the crew were in the cockpit and another on the beach. The lightship’s crew were rescued by helicopter next day.
14 March 1960	Jock Stein was appointed manager of Dunfermline and after only six weeks he had saved them from relegation. He went on to build Dunfermline into a powerful force and in 1961 led them to their first-ever success in the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 final victory over Celtic in a replay at Hampden Park. He briefly then managed Hibernian before taking over the helm at Celtic, leading the Glasgow club to European Cup glory in 1967.
28 March 1960	Nineteen Glasgow firemen and salvage workers died when the walls of Cheapside Whisky Bond blew out soon after they started fighting a huge blaze which later spread to a tobacco warehouse, an ice-cream factory and Harland & Wolff's engine works.
18 May 1960	Spanish football side Real Madrid, won European Cup for the fifth time, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in one of the greatest football matches ever seen in Scotland.
19 November 1960	National Service in Britain ended.
30 January 1961	Death of John Duncan Fergusson, artist, one of major figures in the development of 20^th century art in Scotland, in Glasgow.
15 April 1961	England defeated Scotland 9-3 at Wembley in a record-breaking international football match score between the two countries.
28 September 1961	The Ness Bridge, Inverness, was officially opened by Provost Allan Ross.
31 May 1962	Gaumont Cinema in Edinburgh was destroyed by fire.
14 June 1962	West Lothian By-Election in which SNP candidate William C Wolfe gained 9,750 votes and second place. The result confirmed the Nationalist revival set in motion with the Glasgow Bridgeton By-Election in November 1961. The SNP went on to contest 15 seats in the 1964 General Election as against only 5 in 1959.
15 October 1962	King Olav V of Norway arrived in Edinburgh on the first Royal State visit to Scotland since the Union of the Crowns.
26 October 1962	St Andrews Halls in Glasgow were destroyed by fire.
7 January 1963	Heavy snowfalls brought Scotland to a virtual standstill with road conditions described as ‘satanical’ by an AA spokesman. Diesel fuel froze in buses and lorries in Grantown-on-Spey, where temperatures dropped to -21C, and railway workers used dynamite in an attempt to clear the line at Riccarton between Carlisle and Edinburgh.
1 August 1963	The separate representation of the Scottish peerage in terms of Article XXII of the Treaty of Union by 16 of their number was abolished.
8 August 1963	The Glasgow-London mail-train was ambushed in Buckinghamshire, England, The Great train Robbery was carried out by a gang of 15 who stole £2.5 million in old bank notes in 42 minutes.
15 August 1963	Henry Burnett was the last man to be hanged in Scotland, Found guilty of murder at Aberdeen High Court he was executed at Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen.
8 November 1963	Film actor James Robertson Justice was elected as Rector of Edinburgh University for a second time. His success made history as he was the first, since the Rectorship was instituted at the University in 1859, to become rector again after leaving the post, his first tenure ending in 1960, Both William Ewart Gladstone and Sir Donald Pollock had served twice as Rector, but their terms had run consecutively.
14 August 1964	University of Strathclyde was constituted. It was formerly the Royal College of Science and Technology, created by the bequest by John Anderson in 1796 of the Technical Institution he had founded in Glasgow.
4 September 1964	The Forth Road Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth. The new toll bridge replaced the centuries-old ferry crossing from South to North Queensferry.
16 February 1965	A Westminster government report was published, based on the research of Dr Richard Beeching, with plans to cut the British Railway network by half. The report led to the closure of a large part of the Scottish rail system.
31 May 1965	Jim Clark, Duns, was the first-ever Scot to win the USA’s premier motor race – the Indianapolis 500. It was a prelude to his second Formula One Drivers crown, secured later ion the year, making him the only holder of the two championships in the same season. He was the first non-American to win the Indy 500 since 1946.
6 June 1965	In spite of protests from Presbyterians the Isle of Skye ferry sailed on a Sunday for the first time.
1 August 1965	Jim Clark, Duns-based Formula One driver, regained the world championship by winning the German Grand Prix. He became the first driver to win both the US Indianapolis 500 and Formula One crown in the same season.
20 August 1965	World Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay, later to be known as Mohammad Ali, boxed two exhibition bouts (versus Jimmy Ellis and Cody James) at Paisley Ice Rink, Paisley.
7 April 1966	Jim Clark of Duns, Berwickshire, twice world motor racing champion, was killed taking part in a Formula 2 race when his car slid off the rain-soaked Hockenheim track in Germany and hit a tree. He was the first-ever World Champion from Scotland in 1963 and regained the title in 1965. In 1965 he also captured the Indianapolis 500 race – the first non-American to clinch such a victory since 1946.
14 June 1966	Burnbank’s Walter McGowan became the third Scot to win the world flyweight title, defeating Salvatori Burrini, Italy, on points over 15 rounds at the Empire Pool, Wembley, London.
18 August 1966	The Tay Bridge was opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Linking Fife and Dundee, the 7,356 feet bridge on double piers cost £6,500,000.
1 November 1966	Five building workers were killed when the three-storey steel and concrete framework of Aberdeen University's new zoology building collapsed like a deck of cards in high winds.
17 January 1967	Jo Grimond, MP for Orkney and Shetland, resigned as leader of the Liberal Party and was replaced next day by Jeremy Thorpe.
28 January 1967	Part-time football team Berwick Rangers provided the biggest ever upset in the history of the Scottish Cup by defeating Glasgow Rangers 1-0 at Shielfield Park, Berwick in the First Round. The Glasgow Rangers team, full of International players, lost to a Sammy Reid goal. In the Second Round, Berwick Rangers lost to Hibernian, 1-0.
15 April 1967	Inspired by Jim Baxter, an underrated Scottish side inflicted a 3-2 away victory over world champions England at Wembley in the Home International Championships. Goals from Denis Law, Bobby Lennox and Jim McCalloig saw England suffer their first defeat since becoming World Champions in 1966.
28 April 1967	Third Lanark, a founder member of the Scottish Football League, played their last competitive game, away to Dumbarton, losing 5-1. The winners of the League Championship in 1904 and the Scottish Cup in 1889 and 1905, became bankrupt and went out of existence.
25 May 1967	Celtic, managed by Jock Stein, became the first "British" football club to win the European Cup by defeating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.
7 June 1967	The legendary Alfredo di Stefano played his last match for Real Madrid in an exhibition game in Madrid against European Cup holders Celtic. The outstanding player on the night was Celtic’s Jimmy Johnstone who provided the through ball which allowed Bobby Murdoch to score the only goal of the game.
23 June 1967	William Ross, Secretary of State for Scotland, officially opened an extension at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy.
1 August 1967	University of Dundee, formerly University College, Dundee, associated with the University of London, incorporated in the University of St Andrews in 1890, was constituted as a separate university.
18 August 1967	The Clyde-built Cunard liner Queen Mary was sold to the town of Long Beach, California,
9 September 1967	Spontaneous combustion underground caused a serious fire at Michael Colliery, East Wemyss, Fife, which claimed the lives of nine miners. The fire was followed by flooding after the main electrical cable to the pumps burned through and much of the underground workings were destroyed. As a result of the disaster, the colliery had to be closed.
20 September 1967	The last of the great Clyde-built liners Queen Elizabeth II, launched at John Brown's yard, Clydebank.
2 November 1967	Mrs Winifred M Ewing won the Hamilton By-election for the Scottish National Party with a majority of 1,799 votes. She overturned a previous Labour majority of 16,576 votes in one of their safest Scottish seats. Mrs Ewing became only the second ever SNP MP to be elected to the Westminster Parliament. Her victory was a major step forward in the electoral progress made by the Scottish National Party as since 1967 there has continuous elected representation by the Party at Westminster.
10 December 1967	The former Cunard liner Queen Mary docked at Long Beach, California, at the end of her final cruise, to become a floating hotel. At the time of her launch from John Brown’s Clydebank yard in 1934 she was the world’s largest liner and she also served as a troop carrier during the Second World War.
2 December 1967	Colour television was officially switched on in Scotland.
14 December 1967	University of Stirling was constituted by Royal Charter.
15 January 1968	Twenty people died as gales swept a path of devastation across Scotland with winds gusting up to 134 mph. Glasgow and the west of Scotland was particularly hard hit.
7 April 1968	Jim Clark of Duns, Berwickshire, twice world motor racing champion, was killed taking part in a Formula 2 race when his car slid off the rain-soaked Hockenheim track in West Germany and hit a tree.
6 October 1968	Jackie Stewart won the US Grand Prix ahead of English drivers Graham Hill and John Surtees.
13 November 1968	Death of Joe Corrie, playwright, novelist and poet, in Edinburgh. A former Fife miner, he turned to full-time writing and his 3-act play "In Time of Strife", based on a mining strike, toured Scotland with great success in the 1920's.
18 November 1968	Fire killed 22 workers in a three-storey upholstery factory in James Watt Street, Glasgow. They were trapped behind the steel-barred windows of the former boarded warehouse.
17 March 1969	The crew of eight died when the Longhope lifeboat, TGB, capzised in a storm while on her way to aid Libernian-registered Irene, ashore on South Ronaldsway. The coxswain, his two sons, and five other men, all lived on the island of Hoy. The Irene’s crew of 17 were rescued by South Ronaldsway Rocket Brigade.
27 March 1969	66-year-old Catherine McConnachie was ordained as the first woman minister in the Church of Scotland at St Mary’s Church, Aberdeen. ‘We are gathered here tonight for what is a truly historic occasion. We have done something which has never been done in the story of the Church of Scotland.’ - Rev George Reid, Moderator of Aberdeen Presbytery
17 April 1969	The minimum voting age, which had been 21 since 1928, was reduced to 18.
12 May 1969	The voting age in Britain was lowered to 18.
20 June 1969	The discovery of high-grade crude oil deposits in the North Sea was announced; ten years after the first natural gas was found.
17 December 1969	Four hundred police-officers were on duty at Galashiels to cope with anti-apartheid demonstrations at the South of Scotland and South African Springboks rugby game.
18 December 1969	The death penalty for murder was formerly abolished in Britain.
21 January 1970	Five members of the crew of the Fraserburgh lifeboat, The Duchess of Kent, were lost when she was turned over by a freak wave 36 miles off Kennard Head while escorting a Danish fishing vessel Opal to safety.
18 June 1970	First General Election success for the Scottish National Party with Donald Stewart winning the Western Isles constituency from Labour. He held the seat until his retiral in 1987.
26 September 1970	Edinburgh's Ken Buchanan became the first Scot to win the World Lightweight title when he outpointed Ismael Laguna of Panama over 15 rounds in sweltering heat at San Juan, Porto Rico.
2 January 1971	Ibrox Park disaster in Glasgow as stair barriers collapsed at end of Rangers - Celtic derby game. Sixty-six died and about 200 were injured.
12 February 1971	Ken Buchanan, Edinburgh, was acknowledged as the undisputed World Lightweight Boxing Champion (WBA & WBC) after outpointing Ruben Navarro over 15 rounds in Los Angeles.
30 July 1971	The beginning of the work-in at John Brown's Clydebank Shipbuilding Yard, organised by Jimmy Reid, which led to the formation of Govan Shipbuilders.
13 September 1971	Ken Buchanan, Edinburgh, retained his world lightweight title on points over 15 rounds in a return bout with Ismael Laguna, Panama, at Madison Square Gardens, New York.
21 October 1971	Gas explosion tore apart the centre of a block of 25 shops at Clarkston, Glasgow, killing 20 and injuring 105.
10 November 1971	Kenny Dalglish made his football international debut for Scotland in a match against Belgium at Pittodrie, Aberdeen. Scotland won 1-0. Dalglish played a total of 102 international games for Scotland.
21 November 1971	Six Edinburgh schoolchildren and a teacher, all members of a mountaineers club at Ainslie Park School died in a blizzard while trying to walk from the top of the Cairngorm chairlift to Corrour Bothy. Only two members of the party survived - instructor Catherine Davidson and pupil Raymond Leslie.
12 February 1972	Fraserburgh seine-fisher Nautilus lost in North Sea with her crew of seven.
25 March 1972	Birth of footballer Phil O’Donnell in Bellshill – a first team player at the top level for 17 years, he won Scottish League and Cup winner’s medals and played for Scotland – he tragically died after collapsing while captaining Motherwell against Dundee United on 29 December 2007.
14 April 1972	First quintuplets in Scotland were born to Mrs Linda Bostock, of Armadale, West Lothian.
24 May 1972	Glasgow Rangers became the first Scottish club to win the European Cup-Winners Cup by defeating Moscow Dynamo 3-2 in Barcelona.
25 August 1972	Seven firemen lost their lives in a fire at a cash and carry warehouse in Glasgow (Kilbirnie Street).
18 November 1972	First-ever Ladies International football match was played, featuring Scotland v England, at Ravenscraig Stadium, Greenock. England won 3-2.
15 January 1973	Death of Neil M Gunn, a major writer of the Scottish Literary Renaissance, who in spite of his position as a civil servant he gave much support for the fledgling National Party of Scotland and wrote for The Scots Independent. Following the success of ‘Highland River’ in 1937 he resigned his post as an Excise Officer to write full-time.
29 January 1973	In the first promotion by the Glasgow-based St Andrew's Sporting Club former world champion Ken Buchanan outpointed Jim Watt for the British Lightweight title over 15 rounds. The victory resulted in Buchanan winning a Lonsdale Belt outright and the bout was recognised as one of the best ever contests in Scotland. The Club marked its 250th show on 19th January 2004.
20 February 1973	Westminster MPs voted for Fife to remain an independent area under local government reorganisation, overturning a government plan to split the 'Kingdom' between Tayside and Lothian.
10 May 1973	Five miners died after a roof fall at the Seafield Colliery, Kirkcaldy, Fife, while working on a new seam three miles out beneath the Firth of Forth.
23 September 1973	Three times F1 World Champion (1969, 1971 and 1973) Jackie Stewart raced in his last Grand Prix and won the Canadian grand Prix. It was his 99^th Grand Prix race and he announced his retirement in October 1973 following the death of his Tyrrell team-mate Francois Cevert in practise for the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
23 October 1973	The Scottish Local Government Act created nine Regional and Island Authorities and 53 District Councils.
8 November 1973	Scottish National Party candidate Margo MacDonald overturned a Labour majority of 16,000 to win the Glasgow Govan By-Election by 571 votes. The defeated Labour candidate regained the seat for his party at the February 1974 Westminster General Election.
13 December 1973	A three-day working week was ordered by the Westminster Government because of an Arab oil embargo and the coalminer’s go-slow.
16 February 1974	The Scottish Astrological Association was founded in Edinburgh – at precisely 12:26 GMT.
5 July 1974	Scottish football referee Bobby Davidson returned home 'sickened' after FIFA replaced him with an English referee ( Taylor ) for the West Germany - Holland World Cup Final. West Germany won the Final 2-1. Scotland had qualified for the Finals for the first time since 1958 and although undefeated in their group lost out on goal difference from proceeding to the second round.
10 October 1974	The Scottish National Party polled 839,628 votes (30.44%) and won 11 seats in Westminster General Election. In addition the Party gained 42 second places and saved every deposit.
29 November 1974	The BBC apoligised to the Scottish National Party over a political broadcast which had been ruined by pop music interference from Radio One.
5 May 1975	The Scottish Daily News, the first workers' cooperative national newspaper, was published.
16 May 1975	Local Government ( Scotland ) Act ( 1974 ) came into effect replacing 430 local authorities with nine regional, fifty-three district and three island councils.
5 June 1975	Referendum was held on UK membership of European Community. The UK total vote was; Yes 17,378,581; No 8,470,073. In Scotland the vote was Yes 1,332,286; No 948,039 on a 61% turnout. Shetland and Western Isles had majorities against.
11 June 1975	Oil pumped ashore from Scottish Waters in the North Sea for the first time.
7 November 1975	Scottish Daily News, the first worker's cooperative national newspaper, ceased publication after six months.
4 August 1976	Death of Canadian-born Roy Thomson, first Lord Thomson of Fleet, businessman and newspaper owner (including The Scotsman).
4 November 1976	Death of Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod, 28^th Chieftain of Clan MacLeod and the first woman to succeed to the ancestral territory around Dunvegan in Skye, aged 98.
6 January 1977	Tragic death of Matt McGinn, folksinger, songwriter and entertainer, in a fire at his Glasgow home.
3 February 1977	The Westminster Labour Government said that it would hold referendums in Scotland and Wales on devolution.
4 June 1977	Damage estimated at £15,000 was caused when jubilant Scottish fans dug up the Wembley pitch, after Scotland beat England 2-1 on their home soil.
20 June 1977	New figures showed a 20 per cent drop in drunkenness in Scotland following the extension of drinking hours from 10pm to 11pm.
14 November 1977	Firemen, claiming a pay increase of 30 per cent, went on strike, leaving armed forces to cope with fires.
11 December 1977	After funds were withdrawn by the Betting Levy Board, 900 years of racing ceased at Lanark racecourse.
7 January 1978	Glasgow's 100-bedroom Grosvenor Hotel was destroyed in a six-hour blaze which could not be controlled by 60 servicemen standing in for firemen who were in the ninth week of strike. Earlier the same day three members of a family died in a house fire at Linwood, Renfrewshire.
9 September 1978	Christopher Murray Grieve died in Edinburgh but his literary output as Hugh MacDiarmid lives on. Scotland's foremost poet of the 20th Century, he was the lynch-pin of the Scottish Literary Revival and a founder member of the National Party of Scotland in 1928. 'The rose of all the world is not for me. I want for my part Only the little white rose of Scotland That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.' - The Little White Rose (Hugh MacDiarmid)
1 March 1979	Referendum was held on the Scottish Devolution Bill setting up an elected Scottish Assembly. The result was : Yes 1,230.937 : No 1,153,503. Although a majority voted in favour the poll failed to the 40% rule as laid down by the Westminster Parliament which led to repeal of the Bill.
16 April 1979	Seven people died and a further 63 were injured in a head-on-collision between trains at Wellneuk Junction, Paisley. An inquiry established that a signal was passed at danger.
17 April 1979	Thirty-year-old Jim Watt, Glasgow, followed in the footsteps of Ken Buchanan in winning the world lightweight title. He stopped Colombian Alfredo Pitalua in the 12^th round for the vacant WBC lightweight title at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.
31 July 1979	Seventeen oilmen were killed after a chartered aircraft failed to lift off and skidded into the sea at Sumburgh, Shetland.
7 June 1980	Scotland's Jim Watt retained World Lightweight title on points, against Howard Davies Jnr, USA, at Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow.
25 July 1980	Sprinter Allan Wells, Edinburgh, won the 100m Gold Medal at the Moscow Olympics.
20 June 1981	After a record five world title wins by a Scot, Jim Watt, Glasgow, lost his world lightweight title on points to Nicaraguan Alexis Arguello at Wembley, London, England.
13 August 1981	Outstanding Scottish jockey Willie Carson fractured his skull when his mount fell in the Yorkshire Oaks.
25 March 1982	The former deputy leader of the British Labour Party, Roy Jenkins, took the traditional Conservative seat at Glasgow Hillhead for the SDP in a sensational by-election victory.
14 April 1982	A student, Iain Taylor, accused at Portree Sheriff Court of damaging a road sign, was refused permission for the case to be heard in Gaelic.
30 May 1982	Scotland won the 1982 European under-18 Youth Championships with a 3-1 victory over Czechoslovakia in Helsinki. Goals from Gary Mackay, Pat Nevin and John Philliban gained the first-ever major football honour for Scotland.
31 May 1982	Historic first meeting on Scottish soil between the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Pope took place at the Kirk's Assembly Hall in Edinburgh.
4 October 1982	Allan Wells (100 metres) and Meg Ritchie (discuss) won gold medals for Scotland at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games.
18 March 1983	The Oliver Brown Award was presented for the first time to the climber, naturalist, explorer and writer Tom Weir. The Award is presented annually by the Scots Independent newspaper.
21 April 1983	One pound coins went into circulation, replacing notes in England and Wales, but Scotland and Northern Ireland retained paper notes.
11 May 1983	Aberdeen FC ( The Dons ) won the European Cup-Winners Cup in Gothenberg by defeating Real Madrid 2-1 ( after extra time ).
25 October 1983	Six guests and hotel workers were killed and fifteen injured when the Royal Darroch Hotel at Cults, Aberdeen, was destroyed by a gas explosion.
20 December 1983	Aberdeen FC won the European Super Cup defeating SV Hamburg 2-0 at Pittodrie in front of a crowd of 22,500. The away leg was a 0-0 draw in November.
27 December 1983	Death of the Revd Donald Caskie, minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris for 25 years and dubbed as the 'Tartan Pimpernel' because of his wartime exploits in France.
31 January 1984	Second Division East Fife became the first lower division club to defeat a Premier Division club, since league re-construction in 1975, in the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 victory over Hibernian at Bayview. Goals from Tom McCafferty and Steve Kirk clinched victory for the Methil team and set them up for a home tie against Celtic in the 4^th round. Celtic defeated The Fife 6-0.
8 December 1984	Selkirk FC entered the record book after being defeated 20-0 by Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup. It was the largest win in the Scottish Cup in the 20^th century.
9 February 1985	Highland League strugglers Inverness Thistle stunned their Second Division opponents Kilmarnock in the third round of the Scottish Cup with a 3-0 victory in front of 2,500 fans at Kingsmills Park. In the next round the Highlanders lost 6-0 away to Celtic but earned a useful £7,626 from their fourth round tie.
3 March 1985	Miners agreed to call their strike against pit closures without an agreement having been reached.
11 August 1985	The Hugh MacDiarmid Memorial, above his birthplace of Langholm, was unveiled by his widow Valda Trevelyn Grieve. The memorial, in the shape of an open book, was sculpted by Jake Harvey of Maxton.
1 September 1985	Freuchie, Fife, defeated English side Rowledge (Surrey) to win the National Village Cricket Championship at the home of English cricket, Lords. 639 clubs took part in the competition.
10 September 1985	Scotland’s football manager Jock Stein tragically collapsed following Scottish qualification for the World Cup Finals after a 1-1 draw with Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff. His untimely death blighted Scotland’s success in reaching a fourth successive appearance in the World Cup.
10 October 1985	Four crewmen were lost when the Macduff-based boat Ocean Harvest sunk in fierce gales east of Fraserburgh.
24 July 1986	The 13^th Commonwealth Games. ‘The Friendly Games,’ were opened by the Duke of Edinburgh at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. Some 32 Commonwealth nations boycotted the games over Westminster’s policy on South Africa.
6 November 1986	Forty-five crew and oilrig workers died when a Chinook helicopter crashed into the sea off Sumburgh Head, Shetland. There were only two survivors. The official report on the accident blamed a failure of the aircraft's rotor gears.
23 November 1987	The first McDonalds in Scotland opened in Reform Street, Dundee, with 26-year-old Dave Jeffrey as manager. In 1994 he took over the franchise. “When we first started we were unique not only to Dundee, but to all of Scotland.” - Dave Jeffrey (2007)
10 April 1988	Sandy Lyle became the first Scottish golfer to win the US Masters tournament.
6 July 1988	167 died in the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in the North Sea.
19 August 1988	The Bank of Scotland printed £1 notes for the last time.
22 September 1988	There was a narrow escape for sixty-six men on board the Ocean Odyssey drilling rig in the North Sea after an explosion and fire. The radio operator stayed on the rig sending distress messages and died in the fire.
10 October 1988	Sandy Lyle won the World Matchplay Golf Championship at Wentworth, England.
21 December 1988	The Lockerbie Air Disaster resulted in the death of all 243 passengers and 16 crew when a bomb exploded en route from London Heathrow, England to New York. The disaster also claimed the lives of 11 Lockerbie residents.
30 December 1988	The Westminster Government announced that it would give £150,000 to the Lockerbie air disaster appeal.
16 February 1989	Investigators announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down over Lockerbie in December 1988. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.
29 April 1989	St Johnstone played their last game at Muirton Park, prior to moving to their new, all-covered, all-seated, home at McDiarmid Park. A John Sludden goal won the game 1-0 for the visitors, relegation-threatened, Ayr United. Managed by Ally MacLeod, Ayr escaped relegation and their victory ensured that local rivals Kilmarnock were relegated to the Second Division.
2 September 1989	A cairn was unveiled in a lay-by beside Loch Ness to commemorate the discovery of a Second World war Wellington bomber in the loch in 1985 by a team looking for the ‘Loch Ness Monster’.
15 November 1989	A first-half goal from Alistair McCoist ensured Scotland’s qualification for the 1990 World Cup Final. The 1-1 draw with Norway with Norway saw Scotland through in a tough section at the expense of France.
6 January 1990	The first Scottish Cup tie to be settled by penalty-kicks resulted in a 4-3 win for Stranraer against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park after a 0-0 result after 120 minutes. The first game at Stranraer finished 1-1.
9 February 1990	Evelyn Glennie, musician, and Sir James Black, scientist, were named Scots of the Decade.
2 March 1990	The Queen officially inaugurated Glasgow’s year as Cultural Capital pf Europe.
17 March 1990	David Sole led Scotland to an epic 13-7 victory over England at Murrayfield to win rugby’s Triple Crown, Grand Slam (for just the third time) and the Calcutta Cup.
28 March 1990	Scotland, for only the second time defeated reigning world champions, with a 1-0 victory over Argentina in a warm-up game for the 1990 World Cup Final in Italy. A strike from Aberdeen defender Stewart McKimmie in 32 minutes earned a notable victory for the Scots at Hampden.
29 April 1990	Scot Stephen Hendry, at the age of 21, became the youngest world snooker champion by beating England's Jimmy White 18-12 in the Embassy Championship held in Sheffield, England.
30 April 1990	Ten airmen were killed when a RAF Shackleton plunged into a hillside on Harris.
16 May 1990	British Steel announced decision to close the hot strip mill at Ravenscraig with the loss of 770 jobs.
25 July 1990	Crew of two and four oil workers were killed when helicopter hit crane on Brent Spar North Sea oil platform and plunged into the sea.
22 September 1990	Alex Salmond elected as National Convener of the Scottish National Party. He defeated fellow Westminster MP, Margaret Ewing, by 486 votes to 186 at the Party's Annual National Conference in the City Hall, Perth.
1 October 1990	Fatal accident inquiry into Lockerbie air disaster opened at Dumfries.
7 October 1990	A firework party celebrated the centenary of the Forth Rail Bridge.
12 November 1990	Lord Cullen's report on Piper Alpha disaster (6 July 1988), in which 167 died, criticised Occidental oil company and Department of Energy.
22 November 1990	Four crew members of trawler Antares were drowned when submarine HMS Trenchant snagged their nets in the Firth of Clyde.
5 December 1990	Ministry of Defence agreed to publish secret submarine routes to protect Clyde fishermen.
17 December 1990	Ravenscraig workers decided not to fight closure of the hot strip mill and loss of 700 jobs.
19 December 1990	Seven George Medals were awarded, two posthumously, for bravery during the Piper Alpha disaster. 167 died in the North Sea oil platform disaster on 6 July 1988.
10 February 1991	15-year-old schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton went missing after getting off a bus in Bathgate, Her remains were found in a garden in Margate, Kent, in 2007.
9 April 1991	Scottish Cup favourites Celtic were defeated 4-2 by Motherwell in a cup semi-final replay at Hampden Park. A Dougie Arnott double, a stunning 40-yard goal from Colin O’Neill and one from Steve Kirk helped the Steelmen reach the final.
17 April 1991	Graeme Souness resigned as manager of Rangers FC and returned to English club Liverpool as manager.
6 July 1991	The Piper Alpha memorial, sculpted by Sue Taylor, was unveiled by the Queen Mother in Hazelhead Park, Aberdeen.
14 August 1991	Frank Dunlop, the Edinburgh Festival’s director, attacked Fringe events as “a third-rate circus”.
30 August 1991	Liz McColgan, Dundee, ran away from the field at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships to win the 10,000 metres final by more than 20 secs.
14 November 1991	Murder warrants were issued in Scotland against two Libyan intelligence officers who were alleged to have carried out the Pan Am airliner bombing in which 270 died at Lockerbie.
19 December 1991	In response to action initiated by the Clans of Scottish Societies of Canada, the Ontario Legislature passed a resolution proclaiming April 6th as Tartan Day, following the example of other Canadian provinces.
15 December 1991	Liz McColgan, Dundee, was voted BBC TV’s sports personality of the year.
8 January 1992	The closure of the Ravenscraig complex by September was confirmed by British Steel – meaning the loss of 1,200 jobs.
6 February 1992	The B & Q Cup (Challenge Cup) was stolen from Hamilton Accademical’s club office. The trophy was never recovered. Hamilton had won the cup on 8 December 1991 with a 1-0 victory over Airdrie.
21 February 1992	US Navy said official farewell to the Holy Loch submarine base.
14 March 1992	Eleven died when a helicopter transferring workers from Shell's Cormorant Alpha platform to nearby accommodation floatel, Safe Supporter, crashed into the storm-tossed North Sea.
30 March 1992	The United Nations voted to impose sanctions on Libya for failing to hand over two Lockerbie bombing suspects.
9 April 1992	The Conservatives, under Prime Minister John Major, won a fourth successive term in office at Westminster when they triumphed at the General Election – but with a greatly reduced majority of 21. In Scotland Labour won 49 seats (39%), Conservatives 11 seats 925.6%), Scottish National Party 3 seats (21.5) and Liberal Democrats 9 seats (13.1).
4 May 1992	Stephen Henry was crowned World Snooker Champion after defeating England’s Jimmy White 18-14 in the final at The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.
18 July 1992	John Smith was elected Leader of the British Labour Party.
12 December 1992	In a ‘March for Democracy for Scotland’, more than 25,000 people from all over Scotland marched through Edinburgh, calling for a Scottish Parliament.
5 January 1993	The Liberian-registered tanker Braer, with engine out of action, was driven ashore in a storm at Quendale Bay, Shetland, after her crew had been rescued. Over the next few days, her cargo of 84,000 gallons of Norwegian crude spewed out of her tanks, but the potential consequences of the world's biggest oil spill were alleviated by the force of waves which broke her up.
17 February 1993	Aberdeen FC’s Alex McLeish played his final international for Scotland and gained his 77^th cap in a 3-0 win over Malta (World Cup Qualifier) played at Ibrox. He started his managerial career the following season as player-manager at Motherwell.
13 March 1993	Death of Henry Morris, outstanding East Fife centre-forward who scored Scotland’s first World Cup goal, in Kirkcaldy. In 188 games for The Fife he scored 177 goals and in his only international appearance recorded a hat-trick for Scotland against Northern Ireland (1949), including the first-ever goal for Scotland in a World Cup qualifying game. With East Fife he won the Second Division title and two League Cup finals.
10 April 1993	The body of an Edinburgh teacher murdered on holiday, Adrian Strasser, was found in New Orleans. The killing remained unsolved.
5 July 1993	Christine Witcutt, of Edinburgh, an aid worker in Bosnia, was shot dead by a sniper while driving in a relief convoy near Sarajevo.
17 October 1993	United States of America golfers defeated England, the holders, in the final of the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews.
20 January 1994	Official report into the Braer tanker disaster accused the captain of serious dereliction of duty.
4 March 1994	Control of Celtic passed from the White-Kelly family dynasty, who had run the football club for 100 years, to tycoon Fergus McCann. The move saved the club from bankruptcy.
22 March 1994	Electors in Strathclyde voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reject Westminster Government plans to take water out of local authority control in Scotland.
20 April 1994	Priceless antiques were stolen in a raid on Sir Walter Scott’s Borders home at Abbotsford.
11 May 1994	The late Marquis of Bute left an estate valued at £144 million, the bulk of it in trust to his son and heir, the racing driver Johnny Dumfries.
2 May 1994	Stephen Hendry won his fourth World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, beating Jimmy White in the final frame.
20 May 1994	Cluny Parish Church in Edinburgh was packed and 2,000 people stood in the streets outside for the funeral service of Labour leader John Smith. He was buried on Iona.
21 May 1994	Dundee United won the Scottish Cup for the first time with a 1-0 victory against Rangers. Craig Brewster scored the winning goal in the 47^th minute in front of a crowd of 37,450 at Hampden Park.
2 June 1994	A Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, killing 29 people. On board were 25 senior intelligence officers involved in the struggle against the IRA.
26 June 1994	The driver and a passenger died when vandals derailed a train at Greenock.
12 July 1994	A day after stepping down as manager of Kilmarnock who had taken into the Premier League, Tommy Burns was appointed as Celtic manager by Fergus McCann. He led Celtic to their first trophy in six years in 1995 by winning the Scottish Cup final 1-0 against Airdrie at Hampden.
21 July 1994	Scots-born Tony Blair became the youngest man to be elected leader of the Labour Party, in succession to the late John Smith.
26 July 1994	The National Audit Office reported that construction of the Trident Submarine Complex on the Clyde had overshot its budget by £800 million.
3 August 1994	Tesco won a takeover battle for the struggling Dundee-based supermarket William Low chain with a £247 million offer.
13 August 1994	59 people were injured when a runaway locomotive with no one on board crashed into a crowded intercity train in Edinburgh.
19 August 1994	Graeme Obree, riding a home-made bike, broke the world record and became world pursuit champion over 4,000 metres in Hamar, Norway.
24 August 1994	It was reported that the Libyan government was prepared too see two men accused of the Lockerbie bombing stand trial with a Scottish judge and jury as long as it was held in a country outwith Britain. Yvonne Murray won the 10,000 metres Gold Medal for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. “What motivated me was that I wanted to hear the Scottish anthem, I wanted to see the Scottish flag flying, and I wanted to be up there on the rostrum. When it happened, it was the most special moment of my career so far.”
29 August 1994	Four people in Edinburgh were taken ill after drinking supermarket tonic water poisoned with a derivative of deadly nightshade.
11 September 1994	There were renewed calls for a clamp-down on rave events, after the fourth death in Scotland in as many months, at a disco in Saltcoats.
23 September 1994	Conditions in the Glenclova nursing home in Glasgow, where a 79-year-old women died, were described as a public scandal in a sheriff’s public inquiry judgement.
26 September 1994	The will of Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, revealed debts of £7.4 million, including £2.7 million owed to the Inland Revenue for capital gains tax.
30 October 1994	The Most Rev Thomas Winning, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, was made a Cardinal.
27 November 1994	Raith Rovers caused a major football upset when they defeated Celtic in a penalty shoot-out (6-5) to win the Scottish League Cup. It was the Kirkcaldy club’s (founded 1883) first major trophy.
14 January 1995	Death of Sir Alexander Gibson, outstanding conductor and musical director. He was the first native Conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra (now Royal), a post he held from 1959 to 1964, The standing of the orchestra rapidly rose under Gibson’s direction and in 1965 the SNO performed the opening concert at the Edinburgh Festival, He founded Scottish Opera in 1962.
7 February 1995	Allan Stewart resigned as Scottish Office Industry Minister over a pick-axe incident with M77 protesters.
18 February 1995	Scotland caused a major upset in the Five Nations Rugby Championship by beating France 23-21 at Parc des Princes.
19 February 1995	Death of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn QC, Conservative MP for Perth and Kinross. Roseanna Cunningham, Scottish National Party candidate, won the subsequent By-Election. Second Division Stenhousemuir shocked Aberdeen in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 victory at Ochilview Part-time player Dairy farmer Tommy Steele did the damage with his two goals for ‘The Warriors’ to set up a quarter-final clash with Hibernian. A 4-0 home loss to Hibernian ended their cup run.
10 March 1995	The Scottish Labour Party Conference backed British leader Tony Blair’s proposal to scrap Clause 4 on common ownership by a large majority.
3 April 1995	The High Court in Edinburgh banned the BBC from screening a Panorama interview with Prime Minister John Major in Scotland in the run-up to the local elections after protests from the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.
6 April 1995	The Conservatives were all but eliminated from Scottish local government as the Labour Party dominated council elections.
27 April 1995	Stephen Hendry became the third player to score a maximum 147 break at the Embassy World Championships in the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England. Hendry went on the world title for the fourth time in a row.
13 May 1995	Alison Hargreaves, 33, a mother of two from Spean Bridge, became the first woman to climb Everest solo and without oxygen. She died three months later while descending K2, the world’s second highest mountain.
19 May 1995	Anthony Williams. Self-styled Laird of Tomintoul and deputy director of finance at the Metropolitan Police, England, was jailed for seven-and-a half years for stealing £5.3 million. He spent most of the money on buying and renovating properties in the Banffshire village of Tomintoul.
22 May 1995	An SFA tribunal ordered the owner of Celtic, Fergus McCann, to pay Kilmarnock FC £200,000 for taking Tommy Burns and Billy Stark from Rugby Park to be his club’s management team.
25 May 1995	The Scottish National Party candidate, Roseanna Cunningham, captured the late Sir Nicholas Fairbairn's Westminster Parliamentary seat of Perth and Kinross in a 11.5% swing from the Tories. She retained the seat in the 1997 General Election, becoming the first SNP MP to hold a seat won at a by-election.
26 May 1995	Scotland opened their World Rugby Cup programme with a 89-0 victory over Ivory Coast. Captain Gavin Hastings scored a world record 44 points.
11 June 1995	Gavin Hastings played his 61^st and his last rugby international for Scotland, in a 48-30 World Cup quarter-final defeat by New Zealand in Pretoria. He was captain 20 times.
20 June 1995	Conservationists claimed a major victory as Shell abandoned plans to dump the disused Brent Spar oilrig in the Atlantic.
27 August 1995	The International Rugby Union Board, meeting in Paris, ended 125 years of amateur rugby and sanctioned payment to players and officials at all levels.
2 September 1995	The entire seven-strong display team from RAF Kinloss was killed in a crash at the Toronto Air Show. Pilot error was blamed for the crash.
18 September 1995	An inquiry was ordered after it was discovered that Brian MacKinnon, 32, a carpet fitter, posed as a 17-year-old and returned to school at Bearsden Academy. He had left school 15 years earlier, and won a place at Dundee University medical school.
24 September 1995	Scottish driver David Coulthard won the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.
11 October 1995	Scotland and Everton striker Duncan Ferguson began a three-month jail term for head-butting John McStay in a match against Raith Rovers while he was playing for Glasgow Rangers.
15 October 1995	There were fresh demands for boxing to be banned after the Scottish bantamweight champion, James Murray, died in hospital from injuries he received in a British title fight in Glasgow two days earlier.
16 October 1995	The Skye Bridge was opened. At a cost of £25 million it was one of the private finance initiatives in Scotland and was built by a consortium of Miller Construction, Dywidag International and the Bank of America. The method of finance and level of toll charges were greatly criticism. The Scottish Executive bought the bridge – for £27 million – in December 2004 and abolished the tolls.
22 October 1995	Scotland won the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews for the first time, beating Zimbabwe in the final.
24 October 1995	Scottish Office ordered an urgent survey of a deep sea arms dump in Beaufort’s Dyke between Galloway and Northern Ireland.
7 November 1995	The Royal Navy Dockyard at Rosyth, Fife, was officially closed. Babcock Engineering Ltd took over the site as a commercial dockyard.
9 November 1995	The Scottish Office announced that the monopoly enjoyed by Scottish solicitors in the buying and selling of houses was to end.
25 December 1995	The worst Christmas weather for thirty-five years left thousands of homes in the North of Scotland without electricity after gales of up to 115mph and heavy snow brought down power lines and closed many roads.
26 December 1995	Blizzards and Artic temperatures continued to cause havoc across Scotland and a state of emergency was declared on Shetland when more than 2,000 homes were without electricity for the fourth successive day.
27 December 1995	As bitterly cold weather continued to hold most of Scotland in its grip, Glasgow recorded its lowest ever temperature of -18C and police warned people to stay at home. Braemar was the coldest place in Britain at -20.1C.
1 January 1996	As mopping up in homes across Scotland after flooding from tens of thousands burst pipes, householders faced water shortages and factories were urged to stay closed.
8 January 1996	Almost 500 schools in Scotland remained closed as a result of flood damage from burst pipes.
23 January 1996	Death of Norman MacCaig, teacher and one of the major Scottish poets of the 20^th century, in Edinburgh. He published 16 collections of poems and received honours such as the Queen’s Medal for Poetry and the Scots Independent’s Oliver Brown Award.
2 February 1996	Yarrow Shipbuilders announced 650 job losses at its Clydeside yard.
13 March 1996	The Dunblane Massacre when lone gunman Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and a teacher at their Dunblane primary school, and then turned the gun on himself.
17 March 1996	The Queen visited Dunblane to meet the families of victims of the school massacre and lead the country in a minute’s silence at 9.30am in memory of the 16 children and a teacher who died.
26 March 1996	Mel Gibson’s film about Sir William Wallace ‘Braveheart’, won five Academy Awards, including best Picture, at the Oscars in Hollywood.
7 April 1996	Gay Rights activists attacked Cardinal Thomas Winning after he compared homosexuality to a physical handicap.
13 April 1996	Death of George Mackay Brown, renowned Orcadian poet, writer and story-teller.
24 April 1996	Lord Cameron ruled that doctors could withdraw artificial feeding from Janet Johnston, to allow her a “peaceful and dignified death”, the first right-to-die decision in Scotland.
6 May 1996	Stephen Hendry won the Embassy World Snooker championship for the sixth time, beating England’s Peter Ebdon 18-12 at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.
25 May 1996	A woman swam for four hours to try to get help when a clam dredger sank in the Firth of Clyde. She survived but her four companions drowned.
23 June 1996	The Scottish Claymores defeated defending champions Frankfurt Galaxy 32-27 to win the American Football World Bowl at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.
25 June 1996	Free Church theologian the Rev Professor Donald MacLeod was cleared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court of five charges of indecent assault involving four women.
16 July 1996	Relatives of the 16 children killed in the Dunblane massacre appealed for tough gun controls when they met MPs at Westminster at the start of a campaign for early legislation.
16 September 1996	The Roman Catholic Bishop of Argyll, the Rt Rev Roderick Wright, resigned a week after disappearing with Kathleen MacPhee,40, a divorced mother of three. It was revealed later that he had a teenage son by another woman.
29 September 1996	The Stone of Destiny was handed back to Scotland, 700 years after it was stolen by King Edward I of England in 1296. It was displayed with the Scottish Regalia in Edinburgh Castle.
9 October 1996	Estonia failed to appear for a home World Cup qualifier against Scotland in a row over floodlights. Scotland were awarded the match 3-0, but later they were ordered to replay. That game resulted in a 0-0 draw.
21 October 1996	It was announced that the Stone of Destiny would be housed in the Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle when it was returned on St Andrew's Day.
7 November 1996	A scathing report into remand suicides at women-only Cornton Vale Prison blamed an increase in drug-abusing women which stretched staff resources.
24 November 1996	Death of Sorley MacLean, Somhairle MacGill-Eain,aged 85, leading Gaelic poet and teacher, at Inverness. He was one of the most significant Scottish poets of the 20^th century.
27 November 1996	A fifth person died in an E-coli food poisoning outbreak linked to a butcher's shop in Wishaw, Lanarkshire. Twenty people died in the course of the outbreak.
30 November 1996	The Stone of Destiny was installed in Edinburgh Castle, 700 years since it was taken to London from the Abbey of Scone by King Edward I of England.
12 December 1996	Thomas "TC" Campbell was freed pending an appeal after serving 12 years of a life sentence for the murder of six members of a family in the Glasgow ice-cream wars.
19 December 1996	The Duke of Edinburgh caused an outcry among gun law reformers when he said that gun clubs were no more dangerous than squash clubs or golf clubs. He later apologised for causing any distress.
31 December 1996	A safety review of Edinburgh’s giant outdoor Hogmanay Party was ordered after 600 people were treated in hospital when crash barriers collapsed.
27 January 1997	Bahamas-based billionaire Joseph Lewis bought a 25 per cent, £40 million stake in Glasgow Rangers FC.
17 February 1997	Death of Dr David Murison, editor of The Scottish National Dictionary from 1946 to 1976. He was a former editor of the Scots Independent.
11 April 1997	Scotland caused a cricket upset when they qualified for the 1999 World Cup by finishing third in the ICC Trophy in Malaysia.
1 May 1997	Seven Conservative Cabinet ministers lost their seats as Labour swept back into power at Westminster after 18 years, in a General Election landslide which saw Scots-born Tony Blair become Prime Minister. Labour had 419 Mps, Conservatives 165, Liberal Democrats 46 and the Scottish National Party 6.
30 May 1997	Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, visited the Old Royal High School building in Edinburgh and decided that it was unsuitable for proposed new Scottish Parliament.
11 September 1997	Scots voted overwhelmingly for a Scottish Parliament with tax-varying powers. The first Scottish Parliament since 1707 was reconvened in 1999.
23 October 1997	A Westminster Government watchdog bowed to pressure and agreed to re-examine childhood cancer clusters around Dounreay nuclear reactor.
8 December 1997	It was announced that Holyrood had been added to the potential list of sites for the new Scottish Parliament building. The other sites were at Leith, Haymarket and Regent Road.
11 December 1997	The Clyde-built Royal Yacht HMS Britannia was decommissioned at Portsmouth Naval Base, England. She was permanently moved as an exhibition ship to the historic port of Leith in 1998.
10 January 1998	Donald Dewar, Westminster Secretary of State for Scotland, announced that he had chosen Holyrood site for the new Scottish Parliament building and that it would be ready for the autumn session of 2001.
2 February 1998	Death of Dr Robert D Mcintyre, "father of the modern SNP" and first-ever Scottish National Party Westminster MP in 1945.
20 March 1998	American Senate passed resolution 155, proposed by US Senate republican majority leader Trent Lott, designating April 6 of each year as " National Tartan Day." The resolution recognised the modelling of the American Declaration of Independence on the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath.
5 July 1998	Catalonian architect Eric Miralles was appointed as architect of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh.
26 July 1998	Death of John Aitkenhead, educational pioneer, founder and headmaster of Kilquhanity House School, at Kilquhanity.
25 August 1998	Death of Dr W J Allan Macartney, SNP MEP for North East Scotland from June 1994 (maj 1,227) resulted in first ever European Parliament by-election in Scotland. The SNP candidate, Ian Hudghton, successfully defended the seat in November 1998.
10 October 1998	Aberdeen goalkeeper Jim Leighton became the oldest ever international player for Scotland when he gained his 91^st cap against Estonia at Tynecastle. He was 40 years, two months and 16 days in his last international which Scotland won 3-2.
15 October 1998	Death of renowned poet and writer, in both Gaelic and English, Iain Crichton Smith (Iain Mac a’Ghobainn). He became a full-time writer in 1977 after many years as a teacher.
11 January 1999	Death of Naomi Mitchison,Lady Mitchison, prolific and versatile writer who published more than 70 books, at Carradale, Argyle. She served as a councillor on Argyle County Council and as a member of the Highlands and Islands Development Board.
6 May 1999	First Scottish Parliament elected since 1707. State of the Parties: Labour 56; Scottish National Party 35; Conservatives 18; Liberal democrats 16; Greens 1; Scottish Socialist Party 1; Independent 1.
12 May 1999	Scottish Parliament reconvened with Dr Winifred M Ewing MSP as acting Presiding Officer. Her first words to the Parliament were - "The Scottish Parliament which adjourned on the 25th of March in the year 1707 is hereby reconvened."