Features - Notable Dates in History

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."
13 May 1999	Labour MSP Donald Dewar was elected as First Minister of the reconvened Scottish Parliament.
1 June 1999	The Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood project was transferred to the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB), headed by the reconvened Parliament’s first Presiding Officer Sir David Steel.
17 June 1999	In a parliamentary debate on the new Scottish Parliament building project First Minister of Scotland Donald Dewar gave an estimate cost of £109 million including VAT, fees and fit-out.
1 July 1999	Official opening of the reconvened Scottish Parliament in the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall, Edinburgh.
18 July 1999	Paul Lawrie, Aberdeen, won the Open Golf Championship at Carnoustie in a three-way play-off with Jean van de Veole of France and Justin Leonard of the United States.
23 September 1999	SNP candidate Annabelle Ewing forced Labour to a recount in a Westminster by-election for Hamilton South, a traditional Labour stronghold. The Labour majority fell from 15,878 to 556.
3 October 1999	Death of Hector Alastair Hetherington, editor of the Guardian (1956-1975), controller of BBC Scotland (1975-1978) and manager of BBC Highland (1979-1980), emeritus professor media studies, Stirling University (1982-1990), at Stirling.
23 December 1999	A massive gas blast demolished a bungalow at 23 Carlisle Road, Larkhall, Lanarkshire, killing a family of four – Andrew Findlay, 34, his wife Janette, 37, and their two children, Stacey, 13, and Daryl, 11. The explosion was caused by a leak from a severely corroded gas main outside the house.
11 January 2000	Kirkcudbright registered scallop dredger Solway Harvester sank in Manx waters with the loss of all seven crew after the fish room flooded and a defective alarm failed to go off.
15 January 2000	The wreck of the Solway Harvester, Kirkcudbright-registered scallop dredger, was found lying in 35m of water, 11 miles east of the Isle of Man. The bodies of all seven crew members were on board – skipper Andrew Craig Mills (29), his brothers Robert (33) and David (17), Martin Hugh Milligan (26), John Doyle Murphy (220, David Joseph Lyons (18) and Wesley John Jolly (17).
8 February 2000	First Division Inverness Caledonian Thistle caused a major upset in the Third Round of the Scottish cup with a 3-1 away victory over Celtic at Parkhead. Their victory signalled the end of John Barnes’ brief reign as Celtic manager, he was sacked next day. Inverness CT lost 1-0 (after a 1-1 draw) in the next round to that season’s Scottish Cup losing finalists Aberdeen.
6 April 2000	Members of the Scottish Parliament voted 68-56 to go ahead with the Holyrood parliament building in Edinburgh, but with a fixed price of £195m.
3 May 2000	Lockerbie Trial opened at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. In the first sitting of a Scottish Court outwith Scotland the Defendants, Lybrians, Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, were accused of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
12 June 2000	Outstanding former world light-weight boxing champion Ken Buchanan was inducted into America’s International Boxing Hall of Fame. He became only the second Scot to be honoured by the American body – the first being Glasgow’ Benny Lynch, flyweight champion of the world (1935-1938).
17 July 2000	Alex Salmond MP, MSP, Banff and Buchan, announced his resignation as Leader of the Scottish National Party.
5 August 2000	8,836 Pipers and Drummers marched along Princess Street, Edinburgh and into the record books as the largest ever Pipe Band in the world in a charity fundraiser.
23 September 2000	John Swinney MP, MSP elected as National Convener of the Scottish National Party at the 66th SNP Annual National Conference in Inverness. He defeated fellow MSP Alex Neil by 547 votes to 268.
29 September 2000	Dundee-born Shirley Robertson won the Olympic Gold medal in the single handed Europe-class dingy competition in the Olympic Games held in Sydney, Australia. She was the first individual Scottish woman to win an Olympic gold since Dorothy Wright in 1920.
11 October 2000	Death of Donald Dewar MP, MSP - Scotland's First Minister 1999-2000.
18 October 2000	More than 1,300 mourners filled Glasgow Cathedral for the funeral of Donald Dewar. Millions more watched the service on television, and thousands lined the streets as the First Minister's body was taken on its final journey to Clydebank Crematorium for a short family service.
21 October 2000	Henry McLeish MP MSP, elected as interim Scottish Labour Leader following death of First Minister Donald Dewar. He defeated fellow MSP Jack McConnell by 44 to 36 votes.
27 October 2000	Labour nominee Henry McLeish was elected as Scotland's second First Minister by the Scottish Parliament following the death of Donald Dewar.
23 November 2000	Labour held both Westminster and Holyrood seats in Glasgow Anniesland By-Elections with reduced majorities. Scottish National Party runner-up in both seats. By-elections caused by death of Donald Dewar, Scotland's First Minister.
22 December 2000	Pop mega-star Madonna married movie producer Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle, putting Dornoch into the media spotlight.
23 December 2000	Death of East Wemyss-born Sir Jimmy Shand, internationally renown accordionist and Scottish Country Dance Band Leader. Composer of over three hundred tunes, through his regular wireless and television broadcasts, Jimmy Shand became a household name.
27 December 2000	Death of Sir John Brown, famed Clydebank ship designer. During his 48 year career at John Brown Shipbuilders he was involved in the creation of 400 ships. His last project was the QE II which was launched in 1967.
31 January 2001	Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing ( December 1988 ). Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty. The trial was held at Kamp van Zeist in the Netherlands, the first time a Scottish High Court sat on foreign soil.
1 March 2001	Scotland's first case of foot-and-mouth for 40 years was confirmed in Dumfries and Galloway.
12 March 2001	Tourism leaders warned that the rising number of foot-and-mouth cases was costing Scotland up to £10 million a week.
6 April 2001	International Edinburgh-born film star Sir Sean Connery presented with William Wallace Freedom Award in Washington on US Tartan Day.
25 April 2001	Motorola closed its Bathgate factory with the loss of 3,100 jobs.
4 May 2001	The Bank of Scotland and Halifax merged as HBOS in a £28 million deal, putting the merged company in the top five UK banking groups.
7 June 2001	Scots-born Tony Blair made political history by becoming the first British Labour leader to secure two full terms with an overwhelming victory in a Westminster General Election. In Scotland only one seat changed hands - the Conservatives capturing Galloway and Upper Nithsdale from the Scottish National Party by 74 votes.
9 June 2001	The high council of Clan Donald, including 5 chiefs and 70 clansmen from across the world, gathered for the first time in almost 500 years in Glencoe to revive a historic tradition.
11 June 2001	Prime Minister Tony Blair sacked 20 ministers, including Livingston MP Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, in a ruthless reshuffle after his general election victory.
17 June 2001	Death of Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, regarded as the leading Scottish churchman of his age.
7 July 2001	Alistair Taylor, a Scottish oil worker kidnapped in Columbia in 1999, was freed. The Foreign Office condemned his employers for apparently paying $1m ransom to his captors, the National Liberation Army. Officials claimed other lives had been potentially put at risk by the decision to meet the kidnappers’ demands.
5 August 2001	Asylum seeker Firsat Dag was murdered in Glasgow.
14 September 2001	Millions of people around the world observed a three-minute silence at 11am, and attended memorial services for the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
20 September 2001	MSPs voted to ban fox-hunting, hare-coursing and badger-baiting in Scotland.
6 October 2001	Craig Brown resigned as Scotland Coach following the failure of the Scottish international football team to qualify for the 2002 World Cup Finals.
22 October 2001	Paul Lawrie, Aberdeen, won the Dunhill Links Championship by a shot from Ernie Els, South Africa, at the Old Course, St Andrews. His winning 60 foot birdie earned him over £500,000 and was his first tournament victory since winning The Open in 1999 at Carnoustie.
24 October 2001	Fire destroyed the 100-year-old Bower Building, a historic Glasgow University building. Rare and priceless books by Charles Darwin were among the £2 million worth of botany books and manuscripts lost in the £7 million blaze.
27 October 2001	Willie McCallum won the Glenfiddich Piping Championship at Blair Castle for a record 6^th time.
8 November 2001	Henry McLeish MSP resigned as Scotland's First Minister following his mishandling of the 'Officegate' affair. As Labour MP for Central Fife at Westminster from 1987, he had not disclosed over £36,000 rents received for his Glenrothes constituency office but had claimed in full from the House of Commons.
9 November 2001	Death of Lady Dorothy Dunnett, novelist, portrait painter and sculptress, in Edinburgh. She is best known for her two series of historical fiction – ‘The Lymond Chronicles’ and ‘The House of Niccolo’.
13 November 2001	The cost of the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood soared to above £240 million, six times the original estimate. Officials denied that the cost would top £300 million.
17 November 2001	Jack McConnell MSP was elected unopposed as Scottish Labour leader following the resignation of Henry McLeish. He vowed to end Labour Party cronyism.
22 November 2001	Labour MSP Jack McConnell, elected First Minister to succeed Henry McLeish, promised to restore the credibility of the devolved government.
5 December 2001	Elish Angiolini sworn in as Solicitor General for Scotland at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, becoming Scotland's first female incumbant of the office.
12 January 2002	The Buttery, one of Glasgow's best restaurants for more than a century, ceased trading.
15 January 2002	The Pope appointed Mario Conti, the Archbishop of Aberdeen, to succeed the late Cardinal Thomas Winning as the new Archbishop of Glasgow. Berwick Rangers provided shock result of the 3rd round of the Scottish Cup by holding Glasgow Rangers to a 0-0 draw at Shielfield Park, Berwick. Glasgow Rangers won the replay 3-0 at Ibrox a week later and went on to win the Cup 3-2 against their great rivals Glasgow Celtic. The previous time that Berwick were drawn against Rangers in the Scottish Cup, they shocked the football world by winning 1-0 in 1967.
18 January 2002	A record £1 million fine imposed on multi national oil company BP for ' a gross dereliction of duties' at its Grangemouth plant. At Falkirk Sheriff Court the company admitted two charges relating to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) that occurred on 7 and 10 June 2000.
22 January 2002	Death of John McGrath, English-born playwright, producer and director, best known for his work with the 7.84 Scotland theatre company, in Edinburgh. His play ‘The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil’ was the company’s first production and successfully toured the Highlands and Islands in 1973, including playing to a full house at the Scottish National Party Annual national Conference in Oban.
5 February 2002	Two pilots found guilty of “gross negligence” by the Ministry of Defence, after the Mull of Kintyre Chinook helicopter crash, in which 29 people died, were cleared by a specially constituted House of Lords committee.
8 February 2002	The announcement that the Lord Chancellor. Lord Irvine of Lairg, was to receive a 12.6% pay rise of £22,000 caused widespread outrage particularly among public sector workers who had been told not to expect rises above inflation.
10 February 2002	Death of Professor John Erickson, Director of Defence Studies, Edinburgh University 1988-96.
21 February 2002	Scottish Woman's Curling team led by Skip Rhona Martin won the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Gold, defeating Switzerland 4-3 in a tense final lasting almost three hours. Other team members were Fiona MacDonald, Janice Rankin, Debbie Knox and Maggie Morton.
1 March 2002	Former German national manager Bertie Vogts officially took office as Scotland manager. He was the first non-Scot to hold the office.
8 March 2002	Death of Dr Hamish Henderson, folklorist, soldier, poet and songwriter, in Edinburgh. A pioneer of the Scottish Folk Revival, he did sterling work for the School of Scottish Studies.
27 March 2002	Scotland in first international football match under new manager Berti Vogts were outclassed by World Champions France and trounced 5-0 in a friendly played in Paris.
29 March 2002	The closure of Longannet, Scotland's last deep coal mine, was announced after the pit was flooded with 17 million gallons of water - 336 miners and 150 contractors jobs were lost.
2 April 2002	It was announced that Professor Joan Stringer would be appointed as the first ever female university principal in Scotland. From January 2003 she would be the new head of Napier University in Edinburgh. Outstanding Rugby Union television commentator Hawick’s Bill McLaren, the ‘Voice of Rugby’, made his last Six Nation’s commentary – Wales v Scotland from the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, which Scotland won 27-22. His official retirement after 50 years broadcasting followed coverage of the Melrose sevens and Wales’ June tour to South Africa.
13 April 2002	Scottish women curlers skippered by Jackie Lockhart from Stonehaven became the first female Scottish team to take the sport's World Championship. They swept to victory with a 6-5 win over Sweden in the finals of the Ford World Championship in Bismarck, North Dakota, USA.
24 April 2002	The Scottish Police Federation Conference in Peebles voted for the right to take strike action and the ending of the ban on same imposed in 1919.
1 May 2002	Airdrie FC, known as The Diamonds, winners of the Scottish Cup in 1924, became the first senior Scottish football club to go out of existence since Third Lanark in 1967.The demise of Airdrie, with nearly £3 million in debts, followed a fruitless two-year search for a buyer. During that time the club won the Bell’s Challenge Cup twice in successive seasons.
3 May 2002	Sudden resignation of Wendy Alexander as enterprise minister left Jack McConnell as the only Labour minister left in the Scottish Executive from Donald Dewar's original team, formed three years before. Jack McConnell appointed social justice minister Iain Gray as her successor.
15 May 2002	A crowd of 52,000 at Hampden Park, Glasgow, saw Real Madrid overcome Bayern Leverkusen 2-1 in the European Cup Final, making it the ninth time the Spanish club had won the trophy.
17 May 2002	New Scottish ferry link to Europe commenced between Rosyth, Fife, and the Belgian port of Zeebrugge - hailed as Scotland's gateway to the Continent. The 17 hour crossing, operated by Greek ferry owners Superfast, commenced with 50,000 advance passenger bookings.
1 July 2002	The Scottish Football League accepted in principle a proposal to change Clydebank’s club name to Airdrie United and to take their place in the Second Division. Airdrie United, who failed in a bid to join the SFL when Gretna was admitted, bought over Clydebank.
1 August 2002	A ban on hunting with dogs came into force in Scotland.
29 September 2002	Scottish Captain Sam Torrance led Europe to Ryder Cup golf victory over United States of America.
19 October 2002	Scott Harrison overpowered Julio Pablo Chacon, at the Braehead Arena, to relieve the Argentine of his WBO featherweight title on a unanimous points decision over twelve rounds.
21 October 2002	Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, presented with the red biretta and cardinal's ring by Pope John II and became only the third Scottish-based Cardinal since the Reformation.
3 November 2002	Death of Lonnie Donegan, Glasgow-born 'King of Skiffle'. 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.
24 November 2002	David McRae, 56, a conservationist from Guthrie, Angus, died in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, after contracting European Bat Lyssavirus (EBL) following a bat bite. It was the first case of indigenous rabies in Britain since 1902.
26 November 2002	Dr Richard Simpson, Labour MSP for Ochil, was forced to resign as Scottish Executive deputy justice minister, after saying of striking firemen - "We must not give in to the bastards. These people aren't socialists, they're protectionists, they're fascists - the kind of people who supported Mussolini."
7 December 2002	A fire destroyed 11 buildings, including the noted Gilded Balloon Comedy Club venue, in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town, causing millions of pounds worth of damage. The worst fire in Edinburgh for decades was attended by 150 firemen and burned for 36 hours.
26 January 2003	Death of Viscount Younger of Leckie (George Younger), Conservative politician and bank chairman. He served seven years as Secretary of State for Scotland during Margaret Thatcher's Westminster premiership and as Defence Secretary in both the Heath and Thatcher governments. He was chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1990 to 2001.
29 January 2003	Nat Fraser, an Elgin builder, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of hiring a hit-man to murder his wife Arlene and dispose of her body after she began divorce proceedings. She went missing from her home in New Elgin, Moray, in April 1998 and her body was not found.
15 February 2003	Almost 100,000 Scots brought Glasgow to a standstill in one of biggest demonstrations ever seen in Scotland as part of a world wide protest against war with Iraq. The demonstrators marched from Glasgow Green to the SECC where the Labour Party was holding its spring conference.
17 March 2003	Livingston Labour MP Robin Cook, the leader of the House of Commons, resigned from the British Cabinet in protest against the decision to invade Iraq.
23 March 2003	Scott Harrison retained the WBO Featherweight title with a comprehensive 12 round points win over former WBC Bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough, Ireland, at Braehead.
28 March 2003	The Competition Commission approved the £216 million sale of the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening News by the Glasgow-based Scottish Media Group (SMG) to the American-owned Gannett Corporation.
1 May 2003	Second Scottish Parliament election saw the Scottish National Party gain several first-by-the-post seats but lose out to smaller parties in the list system. State of the parties: Labour 50; Scottish National Party 27; Conservatives 18; Liberal Democrats 17; Greens 7; Scottish Socialist Party 6; Scottish Senior Citizens Party 1; Others 3.
6 May 2003	Glasgow Kelvin Westminster MP George Galloway suspended from Labour Party 'pending internal party investigation'. He was subsequently expelled from the party.
7 May 2003	George Reid, Scottish National Party MSP for Ochil, elected as Presiding Officer of Scottish Parliament.
14 May 2003	Labour and Liberal Democrat parties agreed a new coalition deal for government in the Scottish Parliament.
15 May 2003	Labour MSP Jack McConnell re-elected as Scotland's First Minister.
21 May 2003	Celtic suffered a dramatic 3-2 extra-time defeat against Porto in the UEFA Cup Final in Seville. A crowd of 52,972 saw Henrik Larsson twice bring the Scottish team back on level terms but the 102nd minute sending-off of Bobo Balde for a second caution was followed by a 115th minute killer strike for the Portuguese by Derlei.
25 May 2003	Glasgow Rangers became first club to win Scottish League Championship for 50th time after defeating Dunfermline 6-1 at Ibrox. Rangers won the title by one goal, on goal difference, from arch-city rivals Celtic.
5 June 2003	It was announced that the revised price of the Holyrood Parliament building had risen by £37 million to £ 375 million. The Scottish National Party demanded a cap on the escalating cost.
12 July 2003	Scott Harrison of Cambuslang lost his WBO Featherweight title to the vastly experienced Mexican Juan Manuel Medina on a split decision over 12 rounds at the Braehead Arena, Renfrewshire.
15 July 2003	Former 10,000m world champion Liz McColgan was named as the new chairwoman of Scottish Athletics.
30 July 2003	Death of British 2002 Superbike Champion Steve Hislop in a helicopter solo-flight crash near his home town of Hawick. Twice winner of the British Superbike title, Hawick-born Hislop, an outstanding motorcycle racer won 11 Isle of Man TT races.
15 August 2003	Libya officially agreed responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people, in a letter handed to the United Nations Security Council in New York. The official acceptance of responsibility came two days after lawyers for Libya and the families of the Lockerbie victims agreed to a £1.1 billion compensation fund. The acceptance met the conditions to lift UN sanctions against Libya.
27 August 2003	A painting worth £37 million was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire, home to the Duke of Buccleuch. Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Madonna with the Yarnwinder’ had been in the Buccleuch family for over 200 years. The da Vinci masterpiece, painted in 1501, was listed in 2005 as one of the FBI’s top ‘most wanted’ missing works of art.
6 September 2003	A statute of James Graham, 5^th Earl and 1^st Marquis of Montrose, was unveiled in Montrose. Montrose, originally a supporter of the National Covenant, took up arms in support of Charles I and after initial success was executed in 1650.
11 September 2003	The Scottish Executive announced £6.5 million funding for the establishment of The National Theatre of Scotland. Two workers were killed, Keith Moncrieff, 45, Invergowrie, a mechanical technician, and Sean McCue, 22, Kennoway, a trainee operations technician, on the Brent Bravo platform. They were engulfed in a massive release of gas inside the platform's utility leg. Their deaths resulted in a record £900,000 fine for the oil giant Shell.
12 September 2003	Statue of Scottish accordion maestro and band leader Sir Jimmy Shand was unveiled in Auchtermuchty, Fife, by Lord Elgin. The bronze statue, a representation of the accordionist in playing mode, was the work of Fife sculptor David Annand.
27 September 2003	John Swinney MSP comfortably saw off a challenge to his position as SNP National Convener at the 69th Annual National Conference of the Scottish National Party at Inverness. John Swinney won by 577 votes to 111 over his challenger Dr William Wilson.
28 September 2003	The Pope named a resident Scottish Cardinal for only the third time since the Reformation when he appointed the Most Rev Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, as one of 31 new princes of the Roman Catholic Church. Archbishop O'Brien was ordained in 1965 and became Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 1985. His elevation followed two years after the death of Cardinal Thomas J Winning.
9 October 2003	The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. The £190 million hospital was a modern, purpose-built replacement of the outdated Victorian building at Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, and the first patients were treated in January 2002.
28 October 2003	The Holyrood Inquiry, under Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, into the cost overruns and delays in building the new Scottish Parliament building commenced in Edinburgh.
6 November 2003	An audience of 20,000 at Ocean Terminal, Leith, watched the MTV Music Awards, held in Scotland for the first time. An estimated one billion viewers in 28 countries tuned in to watch the awards live on television.
24 November 2003	Scottish Premier League club Dundee FC was placed into administration with £20 million in dept and the loss of £100,000 every week. The administrators terminated the contracts of 15 players and 10 other staff in a bid to safeguard the club.
29 November 2003	Scott Harrison became the first ever Scot to regain a boxing world title with an 11th round stoppage of Mexico's Manuel Medina to retake the WBO featherweight title in the Braehead Arena. Harrison had lost the title on points four months previously to the Mexican.
2 December 2003	The chairman of the future National Theatre of Scotland was named as Richard Finlay, a trained actor and head of the radio and newspaper conglomerate Scottish Radio Holdings plc. The Scottish Executive sat aside £7.5 million in funding for the National Theatre over two years.
31 December 2003	Inclement weather, in particular high winds, forced the late cancellation of the outdoor Hogmanay Party celebrations in Edinburgh, resulting in thousands of disappointed visitors.
2 January 2004	Death of legendary golf caddie James ‘Tip’ Anderson in St Andrews, Fife.
18 January 2004	A memorial was unveiled in memory of the seven men who died in the Solway Harvester disaster at the Isle of Whithorn. The Kirkcudbright-registered scallop dredger sank in Manx waters in 2000. The Manx Government recovered the wreck and bodies at the cost of more than £1 million, to allow the dead fishermen to be buried and closer examination of the vessel to establish the cause of the sinking. The unveiling was attended by former Manx Chief Minister Donald Gelling and Trade & Industry Minister Alex Downie.
22 January 2004	Englishman Stephen Gough, 44, known as the 'Naked Rambler', completed his cross-country trek, wearing nothing but hiking boots and a hat, from Land's End to John o' Groats. He was arrested and imprisoned several times whilst walking through Scotland.
27 January 2004	Death 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'.
27 January 2004	Death 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'.
4 February 2004	Livingston FC were placed in administration with a debt of £10 million. The previous evening Livingston defeated Dundee 1-0 to reach their first ever Scottish League Cup final.
17 February 2004	83-year-old Glasgow poet Edwin Morgan was named as Scotland's national poet, an honorary title created by the Scottish Executive to boost Scottish literature. Edwin Morgan was Glasgow's 'poet laureate' and Emeritus Professor of English at Glasgow University.
19 February 2004	The Royal Bank of Scotland unveiled a record annual operating profit of £7.15 billion.
23 February 2004	Mull-born Ken MacQuarrie was appointed as Controller of BBC Scotland, in succession to John McCormick.
24 February 2004	Presiding Officer George Reid announced a £30 million rise in the cost of the new Holyrood parliament building, taking the bill from £401 million to £430.06 million.
29 February 2004	Aberdeen-born singer Annie Lennox won an Oscar for best original song, ”Into the West”, from “Lord of the Rings” at 76^th Academy Awards in the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood.
6 March 2004	Columbian challenger Walter Estrada, a late replacement, proved no match for WBO Featherweight Champian Scott Harrison at Braehead, the Scot finished the title bout in the 5th round.
14 March 2004	Livingston FC defeated Hibernian FC 2-0 to lift the club's first major trophy, CIS Insurance (League) Cup. Livingston, previously Meadowbank Thistle, also became the first Scottish club to win a major trophy whilst in administration.
19 April 2004	Jack Vettriano's painting The Singing Butler raised £744,800 at auction, the highest sum for any painting by a Scottish artist and for any painting sold in Scotland. Painted in 1991 The Singing Butler was first sold for £3,000. The previous highest price for a Scottish painting was £520,750 for S J Peploe's The Black Bottle, at a Christie's sale in London, England in 2001.
21 April 2004	A 2-1 victory for Aberdeen ended Celtic's 77 game unbeaten home record at Parkhead. It was Celtic's first home defeat since August 2001, a period that encompassed 77 matches domestic and European, at home. A last minute goal by Australian David Zdrilic ended their run.
2 May 2004	Nicola Benedetti, 16, from West Kilbride, became the first Scot to achieve the BBC's Young Musician of the Year after winning the final round of the competition held in Edinburgh's Usher Hall.
4 May 2004	Westminster MPs voted by 326 votes to 104 to amend the Scotland Act to maintain the number of the Scottish Parliament MSPs at 129.
5 May 2004	Death of Dame Jean Maxwell-Stuart at Abbotsford, last direct descendent of 19th century author Sir Walter Scott.
11 May 2004	Nine people died when an explosion destroyed the four-storey Stockline Plastics factory in Maryhill, Glasgow. Seven people were pulled alive from the wreckage and dozens were injured.
15 May 2004	The first female Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Dr Alison Elliot, was formally appointed at the opening of the Kirk's General Assembly in Edinburgh. An elder and session clerk at Greyfriars, Tollbooth and Highland Kirk in Edinburgh, she was the first church elder in modern times to hold the title.
2 June 2004	The Dalai Lama addressed the Scottish Parliament in Tibetan and then English.
19 June 2004	Scott Harrison in one of his best displays stopped American-Armenian William Abelyan in the third round at the Braehead Arena to retain his WBO world featherweight title. He equalled Jim Watt’s record of most world title wins by a Scot.
22 June 2004	John Swinney MSP announced his resignation as National Leader of The Scottish National Party, following criticism of his leadership and disappointing electoral results for the party. His resignation set in motion the first ever OMOV leadership election held by the SNP.
23 June 2004	Legendary songwriter and singer Bob Dylan was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the University of St Andrews. The American had only ever once accepted such an honour before, from Princeton University, USA, in 1970.
28 June 2004	19 year-old Scottish soldier Gordon Gentle from Glasgow was the last Coalition soldier killed as power was transferred to the interim Iraqui government. He was killed in a bomb attack on a patrol from the Royal Highland Fusiliers in Bastra just as the Coalition handed over power. Two others were wounded in the attack on the armoured Land Rover.
29 July 2004	Vicky Featherstone was named as first director of the National Theatre of Scotland, in charge of a £7.5m budget.
30 July 2004	Death of popular BBC Scotland broadcaster Ali Abbasi. Aged 42, at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow after a short illness. Born in Karachie, Pakistan, his family came to Scotland in 1963 and he joined BBC Scotland as a travel presenter in 1994. He learned Gaelic and was named in October 2003 by the Scottish Executive as the country’s first Gaelic-speaking reading champion.
6 August 2004	George Reid, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, was appointed to the Privy Council.
7 August 2004	Death of Gordon Smith, gifted winger who won league titles with Hibernian, Heart of Midlothian and Dundee, in North Berwick. He signed for Hibs in 1941 as a 16-year-old and was in the ‘Famous Five’ forward line – Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormand. He won 18 full international caps for Scotland, with Hibs three league titles between 1948 and 1952, with Hearts a league title 1959/62 (and League Cup), and with Dundee a league title in 1961/62.
18 August 2004	Babies and children were among 57 people winched to safety after torrential rain triggered two landslides, trapping about 20 vehicles on the road through Glen Ogle, on the Perthshire/Stirlingshire border.
19 August 2004	Dundee-born Olympian Shirley Robertson became the first Scotswomen to win double Olympic gold at the Olympic Games in Athens. She took gold in the Yngling yachting class, to add to her gold achieved in 2000 in Sydney, in the Europe class.
3 September 2004	The result of the first ever OMOV election held by the Scottish National Party was announced. In a 79% postal poll, Alex Salmond MP was elected as Leader (76% of poll) and Nicola Sturgeon MSP as Depute Leader (54% of poll).
7 September 2004	First sitting of the Scottish Parliament was held in the new building at Holyrood.
12 September 2004	Dunblane-born Andrew Murray became the first Scot to win a tennis grand slam junior event when he defeated Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky (seventh seed), 6-4, 6-2 to take the US junior Open title at Flushing Meadows, New York. 17-year-old Murray was the third seed.
16 September 2004	The Fraser Report on the cost of the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, £431 million, almost 11 times the original estimate and why it was three years late, blamed senior civil servants.
19 September 2004	Colin Montgomery holed the winning putt to seal European victory, and retention, of the Ryder Cup at Oaklands Hill, USA. Europe retained the trophy by 9 points (Final score USA 9½, Europe 18½).
9 October 2004	Following a ceremonial event in Parliament House and a Riding down the Royal Mile to Edinburgh, the new Scottish Parliament building was officially opened by the Queen.