Features - Notable Dates in History

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.
10 October 2004	Scottish golfer Stephen Gallacher won the £3.6 million Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course, St Andrews, He defeated Graeme McDowall in the first extra hole of a sudden death play-off to take the £445,000 first prize.
14 October 2004	The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) confirmed that Edinburgh would be the World's first-ever UN-recognised City of Literature.
17 October 2004	Statue of 18th century poet Robert Fergusson, sculpted by David Annand, was unveiled. The statue stands in front of Cannongate Kirk where the poet is buried.
29 October 2004	Scott Harrison took less than a minute to punch his way to Scottish boxing history when he won a sixth world title fight at the Braehead Arena. The referee stopped his WBO World Featherweight title contest against the hopelessly outclassed Ethiopian challenger Samuel Kebebi in 59 seconds of the first round.
11 November 2004	Tommy Sheridan MSP stood down as leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, citing as the prime reason that his wife Gail was expecting her first child.
12 November 2004	A fire broke out at 2.15 am at the Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh, following the annual Scottish Politician of the Year awards, Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was subsequently charged with wilful fire-raising.
14 November 2004	Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was charged by police in connection with alleged arson at Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh.
22 November 2004	Scotland, led by cricket captain Craig Wright, won the ICC International Cup 2004 in Sharjah Stadium, UAE. They had reached the final with a fine victory over Kenya and dismissed their Canadian opponents by an innings and 84 runs to lift the cup.
28 November 2004	Bank manager Alistair Wilson was shot dead on his doorstep of his home in Nairn by an unknown assailant. No motive was found for the crime.
30 November 2004	Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was released on bail after appearing in court concerning two charges of wilful fire-raising at Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh.
2 December 2004	Former Glasgow Rangers manager Walter Smith was confirmed as the new Scotland manager with effect from 1 January 2005. He was the 15th manager since Andy Beattie first held the position in 1954.
12 December 2004	Tennis player Andrew Murray of Dunblane was named as the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year. The 17-year-old, who survived the Dunblane school massacre, became the first ‘British’ winner of the US Open Tennis junior title earlier in the year (12 September 2004).
15 December 2004	Death of 92 year-old, Dingwall-born linguist, George Campbell at Brighton, England. He was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records during the 1980s as one of the world’s greatest living linguists. He could speak and write fluently in at least 44 languages and had working knowledge of some 20 others. Author of the ‘Compedium of the World’s Languages’ (Routledge 2000), he was a linguist at the BBC for many years.
18 December 2004	Thousands of campaigners protested in Edinburgh against plans to merge Scotland’s historic battalions into a “super-regiment”.
19 December 2004	Skipper Craig Duffy (28) died when the 17-metre Stornoway-based Audacious sunk just outside the town. The trawlers’ three crew members were rescued.
21 December 2004	After years of campaigning tolls on the Skye Bridge were abolished. Dunbar fisherman William Easingwood was the first motorist to benefit from the toll abolition. It cost the Scottish Executive £27 million of taxpayers’ money to buy the bridge back from its private owners Skye Bridge Ltd.
29 December 2004	16-year-old schoolboy Patrick Swan, Chirnside, became the youngest-ever winner of the New Year Sprint at Musselburgh Racecourse. The 136^th running of the 100 metres race saw the 16-year-old storm through the final and become the winner of the gold medal and £4,000 first prize.
1 January 2005	Walter Smith officially took over as the new Scotland football manager. In his first year in charge Scotland rose from an all-time low of 86^th to 60th place in the FIFA rankings.
3 January 2005	An Edinburgh architect Dominic Stephenson, 27, was named as the first confirmed Scottish fatality of the Boxing Day 2004 Asian tsunami disaster. His girlfriend, Edinburgh-born Eileen Lee was missing, feared dead.
5 January 2005	Tens of millions of people across the European Union observed three minutes silence at noon to honour the nearly 300,000 who died in the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami disaster.
7 January 2005	Keith Raffan, the Liberal Democrat MSP, who topped the Holyrood expenses for 2004, with a claim of £108,825.99 (including £41,154.64 travelling expenses), dramatically resigned his list seat for Mid Scotland and Fife, on health grounds. As a list MSP he was replaced by the second-placed Liberal Democrat Fife Councillor Andrew Arbuckle, farming editor of The Courier & Advertiser, Dundee.
8 January 2005	Scottish soldier Lance-Corporal David Atkinson, 31, committed suicide by leaping from the Corus Hotel, Glasgow. DNA evidence revealed that he had murdered student Sally Geeson in Hull on Hogmanay 2004.
20 January 2005	Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie was jailed for 7 days following non-payment of £100 for her part in a demonstration at the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine base on the Clyde in February 2002. She was freed next day (entitled to 50 per cent remission and prisoners not being released at weekends).
28 January 2005	Scott Harrison retained the WBO featherweight title after a hard fought 12 round draw with Colombian challenger Victor Polo at the Braehead Arena.
31 January 2005	Kevin Anderson, Buckhaven, won the inaugural Celtic welterweight title with a 4^th round stoppage of Northern Ireland’s Glenn McClarnon at the St Andrews Sport Club in Glasgow.
1 February 2005	90-yeart-old John Panton, seventy years after he first entered the golf professional ranks as a teenager in 1935, became only the 5^th Scot to be made an honorary life member of the European Tour. He joined Bernard Gallacher, Colin Montgomerie, Sandy Lyle and Paul Lawrie in the European elite of lifetime members.
3 February 2005	The largest-ever petition presented to the Scottish Parliament with 162,000 signatories urged the parliament to use its influence to withdraw from the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
11 February 2005	The former primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Dr Richard Holloway, 71, was named as chairman of the beleaguered Scottish Arts Council following rows over cuts at Scottish Opera.
13 February 2005	Colin Fox MSP won the leadership of the Scottish Socialist party in Perth. He defeated Alan McCombes by 256 votes to 154 to succeed Tommy Sheridan MSP. Tommy Sheridan had resigned the position in November 2004 amid allegations concerning his personal life.
18 February 2005	Scottish Tory Leader David McLetchie MSP bowed to increasing pressure over his part-time legal work and resigned as a partner in the Edinburgh law firm Tods Murray. His part-time earnings were £30,000 per year.
19 February 2005	A concert, attended by 10,000, held by top Scottish Rock Bands raised £300,000 in aid of the Asian Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund in the SECC, Glasgow. In total Scots donated some £30m to the donation appeal.
22 February 2005	Edinburgh citizens voted three to one against road tolls in a referendum on congestion charges of £2 per day proposed by Edinburgh City Council. 133,678 people voted against the proposals, compared to 45,965 in favour.
23 February 2005	Death of Robin Jenkins, aged 92, leading Scottish author of the 20^th century.
24 February 2005	The Royal Bank of Scotland posted a record profit for a Scottish company of £8.1 billion, ahead of its move to a new £350 million HQ at Gogarburn.
2 March 2005	The majority of Scotland’s secondary schools were failing to do enough to cope with bad behaviour in the classroom according to a report by Her majesty’s Inspectorate of Education. The report also found that more than a quarter of primary schools should be doing more to manage the behaviour of disruptive pupils.
3 March 2005	Thirty people in Glasgow were arrested and charged with alleged bank fraud and money-laundering offences following the disappearance of almost £2 million from the accounts of private individuals. The four months investigation involved some 200 police officers and in excess of 100 people had fallen victim to the scam.
4 March 2005	Two-year old Andrew Morton died two days after being hit in the head by an airgun pellet in Easterhouse, Glasgow. His death increased pressure for a total ban on the sale of air weapons.
5 March 2005	Gretna FC, in only their third season in the Scottish Football League, achieved promotion from the Third division in just 27 matches, equalling Morton’s 41-year-old promotion record. By May they had set a new points record of 98 for the Third Division, besting the previous best of 80 set by Forfar ten years earlier.
9 March 2005	Launch of new weekly pro-Scottish Independence weekly newspaper – The Scottish Standard. The newspaper closed after only seven issues due to lack of sales.
13 March 2005	Wales slammed Scotland 44-26 to record their highest ever score against the Scots in a rugby international. Their victory at Murrayfield kept the Welsh on track for their first Grand Slam in 27 years which they achieved the following week after defeating Ireland 32-20.
16 March 2005	It was announced that Jenners, Edinburgh’s most famous store, was to be sold to its rival House of Fraser, ending the family-run institution’s 167 years of independence. Jenners was set up by Charles Jenner and Charles Kennington in 1838, trading as Kennington & Jenners. From 1881 the store was under the control of the Douglas Miller Family and was renamed Jenners in 1924.
24 March 2005	A breakaway group which claimed to be the true Free Church of Scotland lost a court action over millions of pounds in church assets. The body had been established in the wake of a high-profile prosecution of a senior theologian, Professor Donald Macleod, who was later acquitted of charges of molesting women in 1996.
29 March 2005	The 250,000 visitor, in six months, was welcomed to the Scottish Parliament, making it one of Scotland’s most popular attractions.
31 March 2005	Angus Sinclair, 59, was charged with the murders of 17-year-olds Christine Eadie and Helen Scott in October 1977. The case was dubbed The World’s End Murders after the Edinburgh pub in which the girls were last seen. Their bodies were later found six miles apart at Gosforth bay and Haddington in East Lothian.
2 April 2005	Death of Polish-born Pope John Paul II, the first reigning Pope to visit Scotland (1982).
8 April 2005	Edinburgh’s Alex Arthur regained the vacant British superfeatherweight title and Commonwealth belt when he knocked out Craig Docherty, Glasgow, in the 9^th round. In the biggest all-Scots contest in 32 years (Buchanan v Watt 1973), Alex Arthur won a Lonsdale Belt outright.
10 April 2005	Hearts FC apologised for a minority of fans who had booed a minutes silence in tribute to Pope John Paul II at the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic at Hampden Park. Referee Stuart Dougal was forced to end the tribute after 24 seconds. Celtic won the tie 2-1.
19 April 2005	Hampden Park, Glasgow, was awarded its second major European football match of the decade when EUFA announced that the 2007 UEFA Cup final would take place in Glasgow.
22 April 2005	SNP leader and racing enthusiast Alex Salmond MP opened the new £2 million grandstand at Perth Racecourse.
25 April 2005	Scotland’s newest weekly newspaper The Scottish Standard, which supported Scottish Independence, folded after only seven issues with the loss of about 30 jobs. Australian Matt Williams was sacked as Scottish National Rugby Union Coach after 17 months in charge – in that time Scotland only won 3 out of 17 internationals. He received a £250,000 pay-off.
26 April 2005	The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the organisers of the Open Championship, confirmed an agreement in principle to allow female golfers to enter a competition which had been open to men only since Willie Park claimed the first title in 1860.
27 April 2005	The oil giant Shell was fined a record £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, treble the previous largest fine for a prosecution under health and safety law in the offshore oil and gas industry, for a series of safety failings on its Brent Bravo platform that led to the deaths of two workers. Ken Moncrieff,45, Invergowrie, and Sean McCue,23, Kennoway, were killed on board the Brent Bravo platform on 11 September 2003 when they were engulfed in a massive gas escape inside the platform’s utility leg.
29 April 2005	Angry lorry drivers staged a demonstration outside the Scottish headquarters of oil company BP at Grangemouth, to bring attention to their complaints on rising fuel prices and the ‘imposition’ of the EU’s working time directive, ahead of the Westminster General Election. Organised by the Road Hauliers Association, some 200 hauliers took part in the peaceful demonstration.
5 May 2005	Scots-born Prime Minister Tony Blair led the Labour Party to a historic third successive Westminster General Election victory, In Scotland, owing to the setting up of the Scottish Parliament, the number of seats were reduced from 72 to 59 and the state of the parties were – Labour 41, Liberal Democrat 11, Scottish national Party 6, Conservative 1.
7 May 2005	Gretna FC, in only their third season in the Scottish Football League, were promoted as Third Division Champions with a new points record of 98. In a free-scoring season they scored 130 goals, just failing to match Heart’s 132 in season 1957/58 and twelve short of Raith Rover’s 142 in 1937/38. Top scorer Dr Kenny Deuchar scored six-hat-tricks, equalling England’s Jimmy Greaves record in one season.
9 May 2005	Jim Wallace MSP resigned as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Deputy First minister. He was the leading proponent of the Labour – Liberal democrat coalition in the Scottish parliament and was succeeded by Nicol Stephen MSP.
18 May 2005	The manslaughter trial of the owner of the Solway Harvester collapsed in the Isle of Man. The court in Douglas found that 41-year-old Richard Gibney, who denied killing the seven man crew by breach of duty of care, had no case to answer. The Isle of Whithorn 69 ft scallop dredger went down amid high winds while heading for shelter in Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man, on 11 January 2000.
19 May 2005	The Scottish executive confirmed that the debt-ridden Argyll and Clyde Health Board was to be abolished. The Board’s responsibility would be assumed by NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Highland and their massive debt of £80 million written off from public funds.
23 May 2005	Death of Roderick (Roddy) Wright, former Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, in New Zealand. He had resigned his charge in September 1996 following revelations of his affair with a divorced mother of three, Kathleen Macphee. They subsequently married and settled in New Zealand.
1 June 2005	Former Scottish Football Internationalist (50 caps) Gordon Strachan was appointed as new Celtic manager in succession to Martin O’Neill. In his first season in-charge Celtic won the Scottish Premier League Championship (gaining their 40^thScottish League Championship time) and Scottish League Cup.
3 June 2005	Scott Harrison returned to form with a fine fourth-round victory over Michael Brodie, England, to retain his WBO featherweight title in Manchester. The Scot ended Brodie’s brave resistance in sudden fashion 46 seconds into the fourth round with a brutal left to the body which left the English challenger doubled up on the canvas and unable to beat the count.
11 June 2005	Buckhaven welterweight Kevin Anderson topped the bill in the first professional boxing promotion in Fife for 53 years. He outpointed Vladimir Bourovski, Ukraine, in a ten round international welterweight contest in front of 1,500 fight fans at the Fife Ice Arena, Kirkcaldy.
18 June 2005	The first official humanist wedding was held in Scotland between Karen Watts and Martin Reijns. The ceremony was conducted at Edinburgh Zoo.
21 June 2005	18-year-old Andrew Murray, Dunblane, made an outstanding Wimbleton debut, outplaying Switzerland’s George Bastle in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, in an hour-and-a-half.
22 June 2005	Derek Brownlee was sworn in as Conservative MSP – he succeeded David Mundell, who had sat as a Conservative list MSP for the South of Scotland until he won the Westminster seat of Dumfriesshire, Clydeside and Tweedale in May 2005.
23 June 2005	Nicol Stephen MSP was elected as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. In a straight fight with fellow MSP Mike Rumbles, Stephen gained 76.6% of the votes cast in a party ballot. He succeeded Jim Wallace as both Liberal democrat leader ad as Scotland’s Deputy First Minister.
25 June 2005	Dunblane 18-year-old Andrew Murray, the first Scot to reach the 3^rd round of Wimbleton in the modern era, lost out by 3 sets to 2 to the number 18 seed and former Wimbleton finalist David Nalbandian, Argentina.
30 June 2005	The Scottish Parliament voted by 97 to 17 votes, with one abstention, to introduce a ban on smoking in almost all confined public places in Scotland, including public houses and restaurants, from March 2006. Four Scottish Socialist MSPs, Carolyn Leckie, Rosie Kane, Frances Curran and Colin Fox, were ejected from the Scottish Parliament following a protest regarding the forthcoming G8 meeting to be held at Gleneagles. This led to their parliamentary passes being revoked and loss of a month’s salary in September.
1 July 2005	In an ICC world Cup qualifier, Uddingston bowler became the Scot to take six wickets in a one-day cricket international. Scotland bowled out Oman for 83 runs and Hoffman also contributed 39 runs to the Scottish total of 84 runs and a six wicket victory in Belfast.
2 July 2005	An estimated 225,000 people took part in the ‘Make Poverty History’ march and rally in Edinburgh, prior to the 2005 G8 Summit to held at Gleneagles.
4 July 2005	Hundreds of anarchists brought Edinburgh city centre to a standstill as they repeatedly clashed with police in an anti-G8 summit demonstration. The police restored order and some 90 protesters were arrested.
6 July 2005	Three-day G8 summit commenced at Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder, Perthshire, Violence by anarchist demonstrators occurred in Bannockburn and Stirling at dawn and in the afternoon at Gleneagles.
7 July 2005	Following terrorist bombs in London which killed over 50 and injured 700, Prime Minister Tony Blair left the G8 summit at Gleneagles and returned to Downing Street. He condemned the attacks on 3-underground tubes and a Stagecoach bus as ‘barbaric’.
13 July 2005	Scotland defeated Ireland by 47 runs to win the ICC Trophy at Castle Avenue, Clontarf. The Scots rattled up a mammoth 324 runs for eight wickets, their highest ever one-day total and restricted Ireland to 277 for 9. Batsman Ryan Watson’s score of 94 was Scotland’s best individual effort of the tournament. The Scots qualified for the International 2007 One-Day Cricket competition in the West Indies.
15 July 2005	Dr Winifed M Ewing announced that she would stand down as President of the Scottish National Party at the 2005 SNP Annual National Conference in Aviemore. She had served in the Scottish, European and Westminster Parliaments and her victory in the 1967 Hamilton By-Election marked a turning point in the SNP’s post-war fortunes.
18 July 2005	Death of 28-year-old Helen James from Lockerbie in the London Terror Bombings (7 July 2005) was confirmed. A coroner granted a request for her funeral to be held in Scotland.
22 July 2005	Death of Lady Anne Shand, widow of the legendary Scottish Country Dance Band leader Sir Jimmy Shand, at Auchtermuchty, Fife.
24 July 2005	Forth Bridge was closed for eight days to allow more than 170 workers to erect scaffolding, encapsulate work areas, blast off paint, carry out repairs and paint 25,000 square metres of steel with an industrial coating. It was the longest period that the bridge had been closed to rail transport.
6 August 2005	Livingston Labour MP Robin Cook suffered a heart attack whilst climbing Ben Stack, Sutherland. He was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, but died on arrival. Acknowledged as one of the finest debaters in Westminster, he served as Foreign Secretary (1997-2001) and as Leader of the House of Commons from 2001 until his resignation on 17 March 2003 in protest at the impending Iraq War.
12 August 2005	Senior politicians and diplomats were among the mourners at the funeral of former cabinet minister Robin Cook, Labour MP for Livingston, in St Giles, Edinburgh.
23 August 2005	Historian and author David R Ross completed his walk from Robroyston, in the footsteps of Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland, to London, to mark the 700^th anniversary of his judicial murder at Smithfield by King Edward I of England. A symbolic funeral was held in St Bartholomews attended by 300 people (over 900 unsuccessfully applied to attend the event). Speakers were Dr Fiona Watson, David R Ross and Alex Salmond MP. Labour MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, pleaded not guilty to wilful fire-raising charges when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The case was adjourned for seven days.
25 August 2005	The gas supply company Transco was fined a record £15 million after being convicted of gross and numerous safety breaches which led to the deaths of a family of four in an explosion at Larkhall, Lanarkshire. The Findlay family died as a result of an explosion caused by a leak from a severely corroded gas main outside their home.
31 August 2005	A winter landscape, ‘Through the Calm and Frosty Air’, by Joseph Farquharson, Laird of Finzean, Aberdeenshire, fetched £310,400 at auction – a record for the artist. The painting was bought by a private collector at the Sotheby’s sale of Scottish pictures at the Gleneagles Hotel, The price eclipsed the previous best for a Farquharson, £264,000 at Gleneagles in 2004 for ‘On a Clear Eve, When the November Sky Grew Red’. After winning three qualifying games, 18-year- old Dunblane tennis player Andrew Murray won his first-ever match in the US Open by defeating Romanian Andrei Pavel in five sets.
1 September 2005	Labour peer Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, pleaded guilty to wilful fire-raising at Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh, following the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, sponsored by the Herald newspapers, in November 2004. A non guilty plea to starting a second fire was accepted by the Crown. At Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Sheriff Katherine Mackie deferred sentence until 22 September for background reports. Lord Watson resigned as a Labour MSP (Glasgow Cathcart) and as a director of Dundee United Football Club.
9 September 2005	Death of internationally renowned surgeon Andrew Logan, aged 91, in Edinburgh. He carried out the world’s second lung transplant.
15 September 2005	Dundonian Frank Hadden was confirmed as Scotland’s new coach by the Scottish Rugby Union, beating off competition from Borders coach Steve Bates and New Zealander John Kirwan. As interim coach he had led Scotland to victories over the Barbarians and Romania.
22 September 2005	Former Labour MSP Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was sentenced to 16-months imprisonment for wilful fire-raising at the Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh, on 12 November 2004. He had earlier pled guilty to the charge and resigned as Glasgow Central member of the Scottish Parliament.
24 September 2005	Ian Hudghton MEP was elected as President of the Scottish National Party at the SNP Annual National Conference held at Aviemore. He overwhelmingly defeated Douglas Henderson and William C Wolfe to succeed outgoing President Dr Winifred M Ewing.
30 September 2005	In a double-first, the first ever Commonwealth title fight was staged in Fife and it was also the first to go to the judge’s scorecards in Scotland instead of a referee’s decision. In a close fought contest Buckhaven’s Kevin Anderson won a split-decision over defending Commonwealth welterweight champion Joshua Okine, Ghana, over 12 thrilling rounds in the Fife Ice Arena, Kirkcaldy. The successful 22-year-old Buckhaven boxer became only the fourth Scot to win the title.
1 October 2005	A statue of motorcycle legend Steve Hislop was unveiled at Wilton Lodge Park, Hawick. The bronze statue of the 11 times Isle of Man TT race winner and twice British Superbike champion was one of two created by Fife sculptor David Annan, The other statue was unveiled during the TT race week on the Isle of Man in June 2005. Steve Hislop, known to his fans as Hizzy died aged 41 when the helicopter he was piloting crashed just south of Hawick on 30 July 2003.
2 October 2005	Colin Montgomerie became the third Scot in five years to win the Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course, St Andrews. A four-foot putt on the 18^th green gave him a one-stroke victory and a cheque for £450,000 in his first tournament win for 19 months.
3 October 2005	Documents relating to the 1986 Dunblane school massacre were released after a 100-year secrecy rule was lifted.
4 October 2005	Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Tom Farmer became the first Scot to be presented with the prestigious Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy at a ceremony held in the Scottish parliament. Five others including His Highness the Aga Khan were honoured at the event which was held outside the United sates of America for the first time (inaugurated in 2001 and held every two years).
10 October 2005	30-year-old singer K T Tunstall won the prize for best track at the Q awards ceremony in London, England. Her single ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ defeated competition from artists such as U2, Oasis and Coldplay.
18 October 2005	Death of legendary English footballer Johnny Hayes in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary following a car accident. He won 56 caps for England, 22 as captain, including the 9-3 destruction of Scotland at Wembley in 1963, in which Haynes scored twice. He settled in Edinburgh in 1985 and helped run a dry cleaning business with his partner Avril who he married in 2004.
20 October 2005	The English Crown Prosecution Service decided to take no action against the police officers (Chief Inspector Neil Sharman and PC Kevin Fagan) over the 1999 killing of Bellshill-born Harry Stanley in Hackney, London. The Scottish 46-year-old grandfather had been walking home carrying a table leg wrapped in a blue plastic bag which the police, believing him to be Irish, mistook for a shotgun.
21 October 2005	Scottish veterinary surgeons backed calls for tighter controls on airguns because of the number of animals injured in attacks. A study by the SSPCA showed that 40 per cent of 155 vets surveyed had treated animals injured by airmails in the past year.
22 October 2005	Hearts of Midlothian fans were stunned when manager George Burley quit the post over ‘irreconcilable differences’ with the Board. The root of the problem appeared to lie with new Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov, Hearts were unbeaten in season 2005/06 and sat top of the SPL at the time.
30 October 2005	TV stars mingled with politicians at the opening of the Scottish Youth Theatre’s new £3.2 million centre. More than 250 guests attended the unveiling of the new drama centre, housed in the old Sheriff Court building in Glasgow’s Merchant City, by culture minister Patricia Ferguson.
31 October 2005	David McLetchie MSP resigned as Scottish Conservative leader following a long-running row over his Holyrood taxi expenses 9260 days).
1 November 2005	Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer George Reid MSP announced that all MSPs’ expense claims would be published on the internet. The issued had plagued the parliament since its inception.
4 November 2005	Conservative MSP Brian Monteith resigned the party whip when it was revealed that he had proposed a campaign against his party leader, David McLechie MSP, who had been embroiled in a long-running row over taxi expenses. Menteith had sent emails to Iain Martin, editor of ‘Scotland on Sunday’, suggesting that the paper should campaign for McLetchie’s removal.
5 November 2005	Scott Harrison successfully defended his WBO featherweight title for the eighth time with a twelve round point victory over tough Australian challenger Nedal Hussein at Braehead. English teenage sensation Bolton-based Amir Khan made his first appearance in Scotland and stopped his compatriot Steve Gethin of Walsall in three rounds.
8 November 2005	Annabel Goldie MSP was formally named as Scottish Conservative leader following the resignation of David McLetchie MSP. She was the sole nominee. Conservative MSP Brian Monteith, who had already resigned the party whip, resigned from the Conservative Party following his moves to undermine McLetchie’s leadership.
10 November 2005	At a meeting of the four Home Nations associations in Belfast, the Scottish Football Association told their counterparts that they had ruled out taking any part in any ‘British’ team in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
12 November 2005	The 228-year-old Leadburn Inn, near Penicuik, Midlothian, was destroyed by fire. A motorist died after hitting the inn, the car burst into flames which quickly spread to the inn’s wooden beams.
16 November 2005	Death of Staff Sargeant Thomas McKay MBE, better known as ‘Tam the Gun’, District Gunner at Edinburgh Castle for more than 25 years, at Lochgelly, Fife. He was the longest serving District Gunner since the firing of the One o’ Clock gun began in 1861. Always immaculate on parade, his image was captured by countless numbers of tourists as he performed his daily duty.
17 November 2005	The Scottish Parliament's Presiding Officer George Reid was named as 'The Herald Diageo Scottish Politician of the Year 2005'. He was the first person to win the award for the second time.
21 November 2005	Alfred Anderson, Scotland’s oldest man and last veteran of the First World War, died in Alyth at the age of 109. Born in Dundee, he joined The Black Watch 5^th Battalion in 1914 and served at the front until he was wounded by shrapnel in 1916 and he then became an infantry instructor in England. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in 1998.
23 November 2005	Police used a Taser gun for the first time in Scotland during an attempted robbery at a Texaco garage at Newmains, Wishaw, Lanarkshire. The would-be robber was taken to Wishaw General Hospital and later charged. Strathclyde Police were the first Scottish force to be issued with Taser guns in September 2005.
25 November 2005	The French Consul-General Pierre-Antoine Berniare, Lieutenant-General Sir Alistair Irwin, Colonel of The Black Watch, and John Swinney MSP were among the mourners who attended the funeral of First World War veteran and Scotland’s oldest man (109) Alfred Anderson in a packed Alyth Parish Church.
30 November 2005	The former Scotland and Manchester United player Denis Law, ’The King’, received an honorary degree from St Andrews University for his services to sport. At the St Andrew’s Day graduation Simon McKerrell, 25, head of piping studies at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, received a PhD in bagpiping – the first such award in the world.
3 December 2005	International film star Sir Sean Connery was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the 18^th European Film Awards ceremony in Berlin. The award from the European Film Academy was presented by Jean-Jacques Annand who directed the actor in ‘The Name of the Rose.’
6 December 2005	Glasgow Rangers became the first Scottish club to qualify for the knock-out stage of the Champions League. A 1-1 draw with Inter-Milan earned them the necessary point to clinch 2^nd place in Group H.
9 December 2005	First Minister Jack McConnell opened Scotland’s first new rail link for a quarter of a century. The £35 million route ran between Larkhall and Milngavie, which resumed a link closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching Cuts. Dunblane’s teenage tennis player Andrew Murray won the BBC Scotland’s Sports Personality of the Year 2005 after gaining 55 per cent of the public vote. During the year he soared to number 63 in the world tennis rankings.
15 December 2005	Council tenants in Edinburgh voted narrowly not to allow a housing association to take over control of their homes. In the ballot, 53 per cent of the council residents who voted opposed the change.
19 December 2005	Johnston Press, an Edinburgh-based newspaper company, purchased The Scotsman Publications Ltd in a deal worth £160 million. The sale by the Barclay brothers included The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland on Sunday and the free Edinburgh Herald & Post.
21 December 2005	Pilot Robert Ward (48) of Glasgow, and Edward Lapsley (56) of Tyne and Wear, died instantly when their Bell 206B Jet Ranger II helicopter plummeted to the ground near Coupar Angus, Perthshire. They were flying from Cumbernauld to Aberdeen on a gas pipeline inspection. A year later an Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report confirmed that the crash was caused by metal fatigue.
22 December 2005	After two months of repairs the statute of Donald Dewar, Scotland’s original First Minister, was returned to Glasgow’s Buchanan Street. It was restored on a new six-foot high plinth to deter further vandalism.
23 December 2005	The Crown Office announced that no action would be taken against three men arrested amid security fears surrounding the 2004 official opening of the Scottish Parliament. One of the men, the convicted ‘Tartan Terrorist’ Andrew McIntosh, 49, of Aberdeen, hung himself in his cell in 2004. A second man was subsequently released and the final man of the trio, McIntosh’s brother, Alan, was also freed.
29 December 2005	A Scottish human rights worker, 25-year-old Kate Burton, and her parents, Hugh and Helen, were kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza strip. The Palestinian authorities instituted an immediate search and they were released unharmed two days later.
1 January 2006	Priceless Scottish works of art, including two MacTaggart’s, two Peploe’s and ten other paintings plus countless valuable books were lost in a fire at the Edinburgh home of Magnus Linklater, former Editor of The Scotsman. The damage which amounted to some £1 million was caused by faulty Christmas lights.
3 January 2006	Inverness-born author Ali Smith won the Whitbread Novel of the Year for her third book ‘The Accidentals’.
5 January 2006	Death of Rachel Squire, 51-year-old Labour MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, after a long battle against cancer. She was first elected to Westminster representing Dunfermline West in 1992. The by-election was won, unexpectedly, by the Liberal Democrat candidate Willie Rennie.
7 January 2006	Charles Kennedy, Westminster MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, resigned as leader of the British Liberal Democrat Party, two days after revealing that he had a drink problem.
8 January 2006	First Division Clyde caused a major upset in the 3^rd round of the Scottish Cup by defeating cup holders Celtic 2-1 in front of 8,000 at Broadwood, Cumbernauld. Former Manchester and Ireland star Roy Keane made his debut for Celtic in one of the greatest-ever Scottish Cup upsets. Clyde lost out to Second Division Gretna in the 4^th round.
12 January 2006	The Black Law wind farm, created on the site of a former opencast mine at Forth in Lanarkshire, was officially opened by Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen, The wind farm’s 42 turbines, the largest in Britain, had already pumping power into the grid for several months (97 megawatts – enough to power 70,000 houses).
17 January 2006	Death of Wallace Mercer, businessman, property developer and former chairman of Heart of Midlothian, aged 59, from cancer in Edinburgh. He served as Heart’s chaiman for 13 years from 1981 and saved the club from bankruptcy. During his term as chairman he gained the enmity of Hib’s fans when he proposed that Hearts take-over their city rivals Hiberian.
19 January 2006	The Scottish Executive announced the scrapping of quangos Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen to be replaced by a new agency Creative Scotland. Scotland’s arts section was to receive an extra £20 million per year and Scottish Opera and National Theatre of Scotland to receive direct government funding.
20 January 2006	The final report on the Solway Harvester disaster by the government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch highlighted a series of fundamental safety short-comings which led to the sinking of the Kirkcudbright-registered scallop dredger within minutes in storm-lashed seas off the Isle of Man in January 2000. The seven fishermen who drowned were trapped inside the vessel when it suddenly turned turtle and sank, had little or no chance of escape the report revealed.
25 January 2006	Dundee-born Respect MP George Galloway escaped bankruptcy when the Daily Telegraph lost an appeal over a libel action. In December 2004 the Westminster MP was awarded £150,000 damages in an action he brought regarding a 2003 story that he had received money from Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
30 January 2006	The first leader of the Western Isles Council, The Rev Donald Macaulay, 79, died at his home on Bernera, Lewis, A Church of Scotland minister and Gaelic speaker, he became leader when the islands were united as a local government administrative area in 1974. He was awarded the OBE in 1981 and was made an Honorary Freeman in 2004.
31 January 2006	Corporal Gordon Alexander Pritchard, 31, of Edinburgh, became the 100^th British serviceman to die in Iraq. The Royal Scots Dragoon guard left a widow and three children.
1 February 2006	11,000 people lined the banks of the Clyde at Scotsoun and crowded into BAE Systems’ shipyard to watch the launch of the 7,350-toone destroyer HMS Darling, the Royal Navy’s most advanced vessel. The ship was due to enter service in 2009 and be able to travel 7.000 miles without refuelling.
2 February 2006	The Conservative MSP Brian Monteith, who plotted to bring down Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie over taxi expense claims, admitted to errors with his own taxi fare expenses claims and paid back £250.
7 February 2006	Former police detective Shirley McKie, Troon, won an out-of court settlement from the Scottish Executive amounting to £750,000, after a nine-year fight to prove that the fingerprint left at a murder scene wasn’t hers.
8 February 2006	The Scottish Football Association agreed to award caps to some 83 players who played for Scotland between 1929 and 1975 but were not recognised with the traditional cap. Until 1975 distinctive tasselled caps were only available for players who took part in the Home Internationals, resulting in 83 players who played for Scotland from 1929, the year of the first continental match against Norway until a change in the rules in 1975 not receiving caps.
9 February 2006	Liberal Democrat candidate Willie Rennie pulled off a surprise win in the Dunfermline and West Fife Westminster by-election following the death of Labour MP Rachel Squire.
14 February 2006	After a 0-0 draw Gretna defeated First Division side Clyde (3^rd round victors over Cup holders Celtic) in a 4^th round Scottish Cup replay at Raydale Park, Gretna. The Second Division club reached the last eight of the Scottish Cup after only being in the Scottish League for four years.
15 February 2006	Singer KT Tunstall, St Andrews, took the award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the annual Brit Awards held at Earl’s Court Arena in London.
16 February 2006	The Scottish National Party won a council by-election in Glasgow for the first time in eight years when William McAllister was elected as councillor for Milton. He polled 49.6% of the poll to Labour’s 40%. The by-election was caused by the resignation of Labour’s Gary Gray, who stood down in a row over expenses.
19 February 2006	Andrew Murray won his first ATP final against former world no 1 Leyton Hewitt, Australia, in the SAP Open in San Jose, California, USA (2-6, 6-1, 7-6). In the semi-final the 18-year-old Dunblane teenager had defeated world no 3 Andy Roddick and his ATP win saw him rise to no 47 in the world tennis rankings.
22 February 2006	Andrew Ramsay, a 51-year-old accountant, was kidnapped by two men claiming to be police officers. He was bundled into a car near his Glasgow home. Police feared for his safety as he was due to appear as a key witness in a forthcoming criminal trial.
25 February 2006	National launch of the National Theatre of Scotland in ten locations throughout Scotland. The site-specific performances were on the theme ‘Home’.
27 February 2006	Australian composer and former director of the Melbourne International Festival Jonathan Mills, 42, named as the next director of the Edinburgh International Festival, in succession to Brian McMaster. He was due to take over the post in October 2006 in preparation for the 2007 International Festival.
1 March 2006	The abolition of tolls on 31 March 20006 on the Erskine Bridge, near Glasgow, was announced. Tolls would remain on the Tay and Forth Road Bridges.
2 March 2006	The Scottish Parliament’s flagship debating chamber was closed indefinitely after a 12-foot oak beam came loose from its mounting bracket.
2 March 2006	North-East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell, aged 64, was elected as the new leader of the British Liberal Democrats after a more decisive victory than expected over fellow Westminster MPs Chris Hulme and Simon Hughes.
7 March 2006	Hibernian striker Garry O’Connor signed a five-year-deal to seal a £1.6 million move to Lokomotiv Moscow. He became the first Scottish player to play in the Russian Premier League.
13 March 2006	Death of Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, Celtic and Scotland footballer, at Uddingstone. A hero of the famous Celtic ‘Lisbon Lions’ team which won the European Cup in 1967 he was voted the Greatest Ever Celt by the club’s supporters in 2002. Capped 23 times for Scotland he was regarded as one of the greatest ever Scottish players.
15 March 2006	Shooter and cancer survivor Ian Marsden, carrying The Saltire, led the Scottish team at the opening ceremony of the 18^th Commonwealth Games in front of a crowd of 80,000 in the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia.
17 March 2006	Scottish National Party Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil announced that he had written to the police urging them to investigate whether the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act forbidding the offering of money for political honours had been broken. Four days later Scotland Yard announced that it had launched an investigation.
21 March 2006	Death of Margaret Ewing, aged 60, outstanding Scottish National Party parliamentarian at both Westminster and Holyrood, in Moray. She served in Westminster for East Dunbartonshire from 1974 to 1979 and for Moray from 1987 to 2001. She was elected as MSP for Moray in 1999 and served until her death and was highly regarded as an outstanding constituency member.
24 March 2006	An appeal by former Labour MSP Mike Watson, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, against his 16-month sentence for fire-raising was rejected by judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
26 March 2006	A ban on smoking in almost all public places in Scotland, including public houses and restaurants, came into force.
27 March 2006	Aberdeen Journals, publisher of The Press and Journal and Aberdeen Evening Express, was purchased by Dundee publisher DC Thomson for £132 million from the Daily Mail and General Trust. Four lorry loads containing a national treasure valued at more than £45 million arrived in Scotland from London. The Murray publishing archive was brought by the National library of Scotland for the reduced price of £31 million. The archive of 155,000 items, including letters and manuscripts from Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Dr David Livingstone was collected by the John Murray publishing house, founded in 1768 by Edinburgh-born John Murray.
28 March 2006	The new Royal Regiment of Scotland was formed with the amalgamation of The Black Watch, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, The Royal Highland Fusiliers,The King’s Own Scottish Borderers and The Highlanders.
29 March 2006	Scotland’s triumphant Commonwealth Games team returned home from Australia to an ecstatic welcome from families and fans at Glasgow Airport. The team had set a new record of 11 gold medals at the Melbourne Games.
30 March 2006	The Highland Council announced that Scotland’s first purpose-built Gaelic school (Inverness) would be part of a £134 million deal for 11 new schools to be constructed in the Highlands.
31 March 2006	One of Scotland’s wealthiest men Irvine Laidlaw, Lord Laidlaw, was revealed as one of the secret lenders to the British Conservative Party. His loan of £3.5 million was among £15,950,000 from 12 individuals and one company. Pressure to reveal the names resulted from the ‘cash for honours’ row over secret loans to the British Labour Party.
1 April 2006	Second Division Champions-elect Gretna FC became the first third-tier club to reach the Scottish Cup final with a 3-0 defeat of Dundee at Hampden Park in front of a crowd of 14,179. A third-tier was instituted in season 1975/1976.
6 April 2006	The Scottish Executive confirmed that a dead swan found on the harbour slipway at Cellardyke, Fife, on 29 March 2006 had the N5N1 strain of avian bird flu. The 6-mile surveillance zone set around Cellardyke was extended to cover 1,000 square miles east of the M90/A90 roads from Fife to Stonehaven.
9 April 2006	Death of Brechin-born Robin Orr, aged 96, composer of operas and symphonies, chairman of Scottish Opera and Professor of Music at Glasgow University. His first opera ‘Full Circle’ was adapted from a radio play by Sydney Goodsir Smith and was commissioned in 1967 by STV and produced by Scottish Opera.
10 April 2006	Cost-cutting plans to close museums and galleries in Glasgow one-day-a-week (Mondays) were dropped after local property developer Steven Purcell donated £270,000 to help keep them open.
12 April 2006	Glasgow Rangers were fined £9,000 by EUFA following a charge of hooliganism at the second-leg of their European Championship match when a window of the Real Villarreal team bus was smashed. They were cleared on a charge of sectarian chanting by their fans.
14 April 2006	Cyclist Chris Hoy, Edinburgh, won the kilo time-trial world title for the third time in Bordeaux, France. His previous world title wins were in 2002 and 2004 with a bronze at Los Angeles in 2005.
16 April 2006	Comedian Billy Connolly presented Celtic with the Scottish League championship trophy following a 1-1 draw with Hibernian at Parkhead. It was the first league championship won under manager Gordon Strachan (in his first season) and the 40^th time that Celtic had topped the league in Scotland.
19 April 2006	Maureen Watt, Scottish National Party, and David Petrie, Conservative, were sworn in as MSPs. They replaced list MSPs Richard Lockhart (SNP) and Mary Scanlin (Cons) who had resigned to contest the Scottish Parliament by-election in Moray caused by the death of Scottish National Party MSP Margaret Ewing.
20 April 2006	Angela Baillie, a Glasgow solicitor, was jailed for 32-months for smuggling heroin into Barlinnie Prison. Her lawyer claimed that she had been ‘coerced’ by a feared underworld figure into smuggling drugs into the Glasgow jail. The Royal and Ancient’s Championship committee announced that the 150^th of The Open would be staged at St Andrews, Fife, in 2010.
21 April 2006	Scottish tycoon Michael Brown was arrested in Spain and was set to be extradited to England to face charges over a £5.7 million fraud. In 2004 he donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrat Party, representing almost half of the funds raised by them for the Westminster General Election.
22 April 2006	Some of the restrictions on the movement of poultry imposed after a dead swan with HSNI was found at Cellardyke, Fife, were lifted. Full restrictions were raised on 1 May 2006.
24 April 2006	The Scotch Whisky industry won a landmark legal victory in the battle to protect its product from being ‘cloned’ by Indian drinks manufacturers. The High Court in Delhi ruled that an Indian-produced whisky called ‘Red Scot’ could no longer be sold under its brand name as the label misled consumers.
27 April 2006	Richard Lochhead held the Moray seat for the Scottish National Party with an increased majority. The by-election for the Scottish Parliament seat was caused by the death of Margaret Ewing who had been Westminster MP for Moray from 1983 and MSP since 1997.
30 April 2006	Celtic’s Shaun Maloney became the first recipient of both the Premier League Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards, presented by the Scottish Professional Footballers’ Association. The awards were first presented for season 1977/1978.
1 May 2006	Larkhall’s Graeme Dott won the World Championship Snooker title for the first time at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, He defeated England’s Peter Ebdon 18-14 in the longest ever final clash. In addition they played the longest ever frame in the world championship as they took one hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds to complete the 27^th frame which Ebdon won, but was unable to stop the Scot taking the world title.
7 May 2006	Livingston FC were relegated from the Scottish Premier League with the worst-ever points record, a total of only 18 points from 38 matches, three less than achieved by St Johnstone in season 2001/2002.
10 May 2006	MSPs returned to the main debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament after temporary repairs costing £30,000 following a 12-foot oak beam coming loose from its mounting bracket. Relocation cost the parliament £280,000.
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