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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
13 October 1924	Lossiemouth-born Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC (radio) on behalf of the British Labour Party.
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.
4 May 1926	The General Strike commenced, the first in the UK. It was called off on May 12.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
12 June 1940	Following the Dunkirk evacuation, the 51^st Highland Division surrendered to the Germans at St Valery, France.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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