January 9 1902
Birth of Rudolf Bing, co-founder of the Edinburgh Festival and Director 1947-49 (and general manager of New
York Metropolitan Opera). April 5 1902
Disaster at English/Scottish football match at Ibrox Stadium when part of the flooring collapsed, killing 25, injuring 500.
July 2 1903
Birth of Lord Home of the Hirsel, Foreign Secretary and UK Prime Minister.
December 26 1904
"Peter Pan" by J M Barrie (born Kirriemuir 1860) first performed in London.
May 7 1906
Historian Henry Gray Graham, author of "Social Life of Scotland in the 18th Century" died.
December 17 1907
Lord Kelvin, scientist and inventor, died.
January 28 1908
Jimmy Shand, Scottish country dance band leader, born.
May 28 1908
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, born.
April 17 1909
Riot by fans after replay of Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic at
Hampden Park.
May 25 1909
Oscar Slater found guilty of murder. The conviction, based on circumstancial evidence, was quashed after he had spent 18 years in jail.
May 26 1909
Birth of football player, coach
and manager Sir Matt Busby . He was manager of Manchester United Football Club 1945-69, winner of European Cup 1968.
November 14 1910
Poet Norman MacCaig born Edinburgh.
July 19 1911
Chapel of the Thistle dedicated in St Giles Cathedral.
October 16 1911
Mitchell Library opens in Glasgow. The building has now become the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art
October 26 1911
Poet Sorley MacLean born on the island of Raasay.
February 10 1912
Lord Joseph Lister, pioneer of surgery and antiseptic at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, died.
March 6 1913
BBC Scotland founded.
April 12 1913
Flyweight boxing champion Benny Lynch born.
September 13 1913
Sir Robert Lorimer, architect and exponent of the Scottish Vernacular Revival, died.
May 26 1914
Actor Archie Duncan (known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes) born Glasgow.
January 13 1915
Mary Slessor, missionary in West Africa and known to many as "Ma", died in Calabar.
March 29 1915
Jazz trombonist George Chisholm born.
May 22 1915
Britain's worst train disaster at Quintinshill (near Gretna Green) in which three trains collided, with the loss of 227 lives.
December 30 1915
Cruiser "Natal" exploded in Cromarty harbour, killing 405.
March 10 1916
James Heriot, author of "All Creatures Great and Small" born.
May 31 1916
British Grand Fleet leaves Scapa Flow for the Battle of Jutland.
June 5 1916
HMS Hampshire sank off Orkney.
November 14 1916
Author Hector Munro died in action in France. Some of his work was written under
the pseudonym "Saki".
June 11 1919
Actor Richard Todd (A Man Called Peter and The Hasty Heart) born.
June 21 1919
German fleet scuttled in Scapa Flow.
January 31 1918
"Battle of Isle
of Mey" - 100 men died in a series of collisions in the Firth of Forth, involving submarines and surface ships.
February 1 1918
Author Muriel Spark born.
November 11 1918
Armistice Day - World War I ends on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
January 31 1919
"Bloody Friday" Riot - mass rally of strikers in Glasgow's George Square repeatedly charged by
police.
February 1 1919
Tanks and army patrol the streets of Glasgow after "Bloody Friday" when 20,000 strikers gathered in George Square.
July 6 1919
Airship R34, constructed by Glasgow's
Beardmore Engineering Co., landed Long Island, USA after the first Trans-Atlantic airship flight - from East Fortune, East Lothian.
March 15 1921
First women jurors in Glasgow Sheriff Court.
October 9 1921
SS Rowan sank off the Rhinns of Galloway, near Corsewall Point with 34 casualties.
October 16 1921
Poet George Mackay Brown born.
October 23 1921
John Boyd Dunlop who invented the pneumatic tyre, died.
August 2 1922
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia.
October 28 1922
Novelist Cliff Hanley ("Dancing in the Streets" etc) born in Glasgow.
January 1 1923
London Midland and Scottish (LMS) and London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) formed from amalgamation of earlier companies.
February 24 1923
Steam train, the "Flying Scotsman" went into service with
London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), on the London (King's Cross) to Edinburgh route.
September 25 1923
Pit disaster at Redding (near Polmont, Stirlingshire) when the mine flooded, drowning 40 miners. Five
survivors were recovered after 10 days underground.
November 30 1923
John Maclean, political activist, Marxist, appointed Bolshevik consul for Scotland by Lenin, died.
July 11 1924
Eric Liddell (later
famous as a result of the film "Chariots of Fire") won Olympic 400 metres sprint in Paris.
December 10 1924
Novelist and poet George MacDonald, born.
July 7 1925
Kelvin Hall exhibition building, Glasgow, destroyed by fire.
January 17 1926
Moira Shearer, ballet dancer and film star, born Dunfermline
January 27 1926
First public demonstration of TV by John Logie Baird.
May 4/12 1926
General Strike by workers throughout the UK.
January 29 1928
Earl Haig, Commander in Chief of British forces 1915-18, founder of the
British Legion, died.
April 12 1928
Madeleine Smith, found "not proven" for murder in 1857, died peacefully in New York.
May 24 1928
Actor and comedian Stanley Baxter born.
July 3 1928
John Logie Baird transmitted first colour television.
July 12 1928
Broadcaster Sir Alastair Burnet born.
December 11 1928
Charles Rennie Mackintosh died.
January 19 1929
Last tramcars run in Perth.
October 4 1929
Most of United Free Church merged with Church of Scotland.
October 12 1929
Birth of Magnus Magnusson, writer, broadcaster and questionmaster in TV programme "Mastermind".
December 31 1929
72 killed at Glen Cinema Fire, Paisley.
January 14 1930
Sir Thomas Mackenzie, New Zealand statesman and Prime Minister, died.
June 11 1930
Empress of Britain launched from Clydebank.
July 7 1930
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle author of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories, died.
August 25 1930
Actor Sean Connery born.
August 29 1930
Island of St Kilda evacuated.
December 22 1930
Author Neil Munro died in Helensburgh.
August 25 1931
Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government.
September 22 1931
Birth of politician, Secretary of State for Scotland, Minister for Defence, Viscount
Younger of Leckie (George Younger). Later became Chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc.
October 2 1931
Death of Sir Thomas Lipton, grocer, tea merchant and contestant for the "Americas Cup".
August 19 1932
Jim Mollinson landed after the first East/West solo flight of the Atlantic.
September 28 1932
TV mogul Jeremy Isaacs born.
March 26 1934
Car driving tests introduced for the first time.
April 20 1934
Scottish National Party founded.
September 26 1934
Liner Queen Mary (81,235 tons) launched at John Brown's shipyard, Clydebank. She went on to break the Atlantic record (the "Blue
Riband") four times.
March 16 1935
John J R Macleod, Scottish/Canadian physiologist and winner of Nobel Prize (in 1923) died.
September 9 1935
Benny Lynch won the World Flyweight boxing title, defeating Jackie Brown in 2 rounds.
October 9 1935
Ornithologist and painter Archibald Thorburn died.
March 4 1936
Jim Clark, Formula I World motor racing champion, born Fife.
March 24 1936
An estimated one million people watch the Queen Mary leave the Clyde for the first time.
May 27 1936
Maiden voyage of liner Queen Mary.
January 20 1937
Benny Lynch crowned world flyweight champion.
April 17 1937
European record for attendance at a football match, 149,547 set at Hampden Park, Glasgow.
Scotland were playing England and until 1950 this was a world record.
June 19 1937
Sir J M Barrie, author of "Peter Pan" died.
August 21 1937
Birth of Donald Dewar, present First Minister in the Scottish Parliament.
November 9 1937
Ramsay MacDonald, first UK Labour Prime Minister, died aboard "Reina del Pacifico".
December 4 1937
Desperate Dan, cartoon character, first appeared in the "Dandy" comic.
December 10 1937
Trains collide at Castlecary, 35 killed, 179 injured.
March 31 1938
David Steel, (Lord Steel of Aikwood),
politician and former leader of the Liberal party, born. He was elected "Presiding Officer" in the new Scottish Parliament when it opened on 12 May 1999.
September 13 1938
John Smith, politician and leader of the Labour Party, born.
September 27 1938
Liner Queen Elizabeth, then the largest passenger ship ever built, launched at John Brown's shipyard, Clydebank.
January 2 1939
UK attendance record for a club football match created when 118,567 attended the Rangers v Celtic match at Ibrox stadium.
September 3 1939
Start of Second World War.
October 14 1939
German submarine sank HMS "Royal Oak" in Scapa Flow, Orkney.
October 16 1939
City of Glasgow Fighter Squadron (No 602) shot down the first enemy aircraft over Britain after an attack on the River Forth.
February 12 1940
John Buchan, author (39 Steps etc) and diplomat (Governor General of Canada, 1935/1940) died in Ottowa.
February 24 1940
Footballer Denis Law who played for Manchester United and Scotland, born.
April 30 1940
Free French Destroyer "Maillr Breze" explodes and sinks off Greenock.
June 14 1940
Queen Mary, Aquitania,
Empress of Canada, and Empress of Britain arrive in the River Clyde with the first contingent of Australian and New Zealand troops.
July 1 1940
Birth of Craig Brown, manager of the Scotland football (soccer) team.
July 5 1940
A convoy of gold bullion worth 1,800 million pounds sails from the River Clyde.
October 23 1940
Poet and dramatist Tom McGrath born in Rutherglen.
March 13/15 1941
Blitz of Clydebank by German Luftwaffe.
March 14 1941
SS "Politician" ran aground on Islay, creating the basis for Sir Compton
MacKenzie's novel "Whisky Galore".
May 10 1941
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, descended by parachute into Scotland at Eaglesham.
June 9 1942
First US troops (over 10,000 men) disembark from Queen Mary on the River Clyde.
November 22 1942
Actor Tom Conti born.
November 24 1942
Comedian and actor Billy Connolly born.
May 9 1943
Viscount
Cunningham, British admiral and C in C in the Mediterranean, issued his command "Sink, burn and destroy; let nothing pass".
June 17 1943
Annie S Swan, novelist, died.
October 15 1943
Poet William Souter died in Perth.
September 18 1944
Birth of Lord Roger of Earlsferry, Lord Justice General.
November 30 1944
HMS Vanguard, Britain's largest battleship at that time, launched on the Clyde.
January 10 1945
Rod Stewart born.
January 16 1945
52nd Highland Light Infantry and 1st Commando Brigade cross from Holland
into Germany and assault Heinsberg.
February 21 1945
Eric Liddell, "Chariots of Fire" athlete, winner of 1924 Olympics 400 metres, died in Japanese internment camp in China.
April 23 1945
Blackout restrictions lifted as World War II heads to a conclusion.
May 8 1945
Victory-in-Europe Day, end of World War II in Europe.
June 15 1945
Queen Mary leaves Greenock, taking nearly 15,000 GIs home to US.
July 5 1945
First General Election after WWII - sweeping victory for the Labour Party.
January 8 1946
Lord Hardie of Blackford, Lord Advocate, born.
February 28 1946
Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary, born.
June 14 1946
John Logie Baird , inventor of the first television, died.
August 6 1946
World flyweight boxing champion Benny Lynch died.
October 30 1947
Coal mines nationalised and brought into public ownership.
August 17 1947
First Edinburgh International Festival opened.
Seprember 4 1947
Alexander McArthur, author of the classic story about Glasgow in the 1930s, "No Mean City" died at the age of 46.
October 30 1947
"Caronia" launched on the Clyde.
December 14 1947
Will Fyfe, comedian, died.
September 27 1948
Singer Barbara Dickson, born.
May 4 1949
Twelve girls died in a fire at Grafton's fashion store in Glasgow.
February 26 1950
Entertainer and song writer Sir Harry Lauder died.
December 25 1950
Stone of Destiny removed from Westminster Abbey.
February 20 1951
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, born.
March 14 1952
First television programmes broadcast from Kirk o' Shotts, Central Scotland.
September 29 1952
John Cobb made an attempt at the world water-speed record on Loch Ness which ended in tragedy as the boat crashed and
Cobb was killed.
January 31 1953
Princess Victoria, Stranraer-Larne ferry, sank.
April 16 1953
Royal yacht "Britannia" launched at John Brown's shipyard, Clydebank.
July 9 1954
Cairngorm National Nature Reserve established.
October 16 1954
Former Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth born.
December 31 1954
Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish national Party, born.
March 11 1955
Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, died.
March 19 1955
Billy Graham began All-Scotland Crusade.
October 20 1956
Tramcars stop running in Dundee.
November 16 1956
Tramcars stop running in Edinburgh.
February 9 1958
Golfer Sandy Lyle born.
February 18 1958
Writer Ian Banks born in Dunfermline, Fife.
January 3 1959
Poet and critic Edwin Muir died.
May 29 1960
Cheapside docks fire, Glasgow, 19 firemen killed.
October 25 1960
Elvis Presley touched down at Prestwick airport, his only visit to Scotland.
March 3 1961
USS Proteus arrives in the Holy Loch to set up the Polaris nuclear submarine base.
January 28 1962
Scottish Opera founded.
September 4 1962
Last tramcar run in Glasgow (to Auchenshuggle).
1 January 1963
The Beatles opened a 5-day tour of Scotland to promote their first single "Love Me Do."
May 2 1963
Rootes car factory opens at Linwood, making the Hillman Imp.
September 4 1964
Forth Road Bridge opened. At 6,156 feet long it was the longest in Europe at that time.
November 20 1964
First stretch of the M8 Motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh opens.
October 15 1965
Cruachan hydro-electric scheme opens.
April 11 1965
Racing circuit at Ingleston opens.
December 3 1965
The Beatles launched their last concert tour of Britain in Glasgow.
June 14 1966
Walter McGowan wins World Fly-weight Championship.
August 18 1966
Tay Road Bridge opened.
May 25 1967
Celtic Football Club won European Cup.
September 20 1967
Liner "Queen Elizabeth II" launched at Clydebank.
January 15 1968
Hurricane winds of over 100mph hit Glasgow and the west of Scotland, damaging 250,000 homes, 1,700 homeless and 20 people killed.
April 7 1968
Jim Clark, Duns farmer, twice World Motor Racing Champion, killed in crash, Hockenheim.
November 13 1968
Author Joe Corrie died in Edinburgh.
March 18 1969
Longhope lifeboat sinks in the Pentland Firth with the loss of all on board.
May 3 1969
Debut of Scottish Ballet at the King's Theatre, Glasgow.
January 21 1970
Fraserburgh lifeboat sinks, only one crewman survives.
June 26 1970
Kingston Bridge over the River Clyde in Glasgow officially opened. At the time, it was the longest bridge in any British city.
January 2 1971
Ibrox Park disaster, 66 supporters killed on stairway 13.
February 12 1971
Ken Buchanan wins the World Lightweight Boxing Championship.
February 15 1971
Decimal currency introduced, abandoning 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.
March 27 1971
David Coulthard, Grand Prix racing driver born.
May 25 1971
Invergordon aluminium works starts production.
June 16 1971
Lord Reith, "father" of the BBC, died.
August 2 1971
"Work-in" begins in protest in West of Scotland against closure of John
Brown's shipyard, led by shop steward Jimmy Reid.
June 25 1971
Lord Boyd Orr, biologist and Nobel Prize Winner, died.
July 2 1971
Erskine Bridge over the River Clyde opened.
September 1 1971
Sole
remaining gas street lamps in Glasgow were lit for the last time, bringing to an end the age of the "leeries", the lamplighters who started in 1718 with oil lamps.
October 20 1971
Explosion at Clarkston Toll shopping centre, killing 12.
January 22 1972
UK joins the European Common Market (now called the European Union).
February 11 1972
Island of Rockall, 300 miles west of mainland
Scotland, formally annexed as part of Scotland.
September 20 1972
Paul McCartney, one of the "Beatles", was arrested for possession of marijuana at his farm in the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland.
January 15 1973
Neil M Gunn, author of "The Silver Darlings" and many other books and short stories, died.
March 13 1973
Scotland played Brazil to mark centenary of Scottish Football Association.
December 5 1973
Sir Robert Watson-Watt, inventor of radar, died.
January 27 1974
Professional football played on a Sunday for the first time.
November 7 1974
Writer Eric Linklater died in Orkney.
June 11 1975
First oil pumped ashore from British oilfields in the North Sea.
November 3 1975
Queen Elizabeth officially opened an underwater pipeline to bring the first North Sea oil ashore.
July 7 1976
David Steel (now Lord Steel of Aikwood) became leader of the Liberal Party.
October 17 1976
Jesuit priest St John Ogilvie (1579-1615) canonised.
April 29 1977
Scottish Aviation becomes part of British Aerospace.
June 3 1978
Peru defeated Scotland 3-1 in the football World Cup in Argentina.
September 9 1978
Poet and Nationalist C M Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) died.
March 1 1979
Scots voted in favour of Devolution, but failed to reach the required 40% of the population in favour of implementing it.
January 6 1981
A.J. Cronin, author of "Keys of the Kingdom"
and creator of the British television series "Dr Finlay's Casebook" died.
January 5 1982
Rod Stewart reached the top of the US charts with "Young Turks".
June 1 1982
Pope John Paul II in Glasgow.
May 21 1983
TSB Bank Scotland (now Lloyds TSB Scotland) formed from regional Trustee Savings Banks.
March 17 1984
Scotland won Rugby "Grand Slam" at Murrayfield - the first time in 59 years.
February 2 1987
Novelist Alistair Maclean died. His books "The Guns of Navarone", "Ice Station Zebra" and
"Where Eagles Dare" were made into films.
April 28 1988
Glasgow Garden Festival opened by Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales.
April 29 1988
Actor Andrew Cruickshank, well known for the TV series "Dr Finlay's Case Book", died.
July 6 1988
Explosion aboard North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha, 166 lives lost.
December 21 1988
Pan Am 747 blew
up and crashed at Lockerbie, Dumfries, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 Lockerbie residents.
January 14 1990
Death of actor Gordon Jackson (Tunes of Glory, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Upstairs, Downstairs
etc).
January 15 1990
Strathclyde Region Council applied for 250,000 summary warrants against rate payers refusing to pay "Poll Tax" (introduced in Scotland in April 1989).
March 17 1990
Scotland beat England at Murrayfield to win the rugby "Grand Slam".
February 16 1992
Journalist and poet George Mann MacBeth ("A War Quartet") died.
January 5 1993
89,000-tonne
Liberian-registered Braer oil tanker, carrying 84,500 tonnes of crude oil, hit rocks on Shetland Isles in heavy seas.
March 21 1993
Pope John Paul sanctifies John Duns Scotus, philosopher, theologian (but the first "dunce").
May 12 1994
Rt Hon John Smith, leader of the Labour Party died.
June 2 1994
Helicopter crash on Mull of Kintyre, 29 anti-terrorism experts killed.
February 23 1995
James Heriot, author of "All Creatures Great and Small", died aged 78.
October 9 1995
Death of Lord Home of
the Hirsel, also known as Sir Alec Douglas-Home, formerly Foreign Secretary and UK Prime Minister.
October 17 1995
Bridge to the Isle of Skye opened.
March 13 1996
Sixteen primary school children and their teacher murdered in Dunblane.
April 13 1996
George Mackay Brown, poet and novelist, died.
November 27 1996
First deaths from E-coli outbreak in Lanarkshire, Scotland.
September 11 1997
Referendum on Devolution</>, which approved the creation of a new Scottish Parliament by a substantial majority.
April 6 1998
Celebration of Tartan Day approved by the US Senate, in recognition of the monumental achievements and invaluable contributions made by Scottish Americans.
