Elly
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Post by Elly on Aug 31, 2005 15:31:43 GMT 10
1 September
September 1 714 - Death of St Giles, patron saint of Edinburgh (and Elgin).
September 1 1644 - Battle of Tippermuir, in which Marquis of Montrose defeated Covenanters.
This day in 1720 saw the official marriage ceremony of Prince James Francis Edward Stewart and the Polish Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska. The marriage took place at the Italian Cathedral of Monte Fiascone, and the union led to the birth of Charles Stewart in Rome in 1720. Maria Clementina Sobieska was one of Europe's richest heiresses and brought the Stuarts a cash injection. The Polish Princess had been kidnapped on her way to the original wedding the preceding year to "The Old Pretender". She escaped, and had married James by proxy when he was away trying to raise support for the 1719 Rising. After the Rising was quashed, Jacobite hopes were raised in the form of the infant prince Charles.
In 1971, the sole remaining gas street lamp in Glasgow was lit for the last time. This signalled the end of an era - the age of the "leeries", or lamplighters, which began in 1718 with oil lamps. The gas lamps were phased out in favour of electric street lighting.
September 1 1985 - Freuchie in Fife won the Village Cricket Cup at Lord's Cricket Ground, the first time a Scottish club side had played on such hallowed ground.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 2, 2005 19:24:01 GMT 10
2 september
This day in 1834 saw the death of Sir Thomas Telford, the pioneering engineer, road, bridge and canal builder. From humble beginnings in Westerkirk, Dumfrieshire, an encouraging patron supported Telford 's appointment to supervise the construction of the Ellesmere Canal in 1793. Nicknamed "The Colossus of Roads", he became chief civil engineer of an innovative scheme to improve communications in the Highlands, following a survey of the military roads created by General Wade during the Jacobite Rebellion. Telford also oversaw the construction of the Caledonian Canal, linking 60 miles of freshwater inlets, as well as building nearly 1,000 miles of roads and 120 bridges over a 20 year period. He gained a reputation as the finest civil engineer of his day. Work outside Scotland included the construction of the Menai suspension bridge, the Gotha canal in Sweden, and the aqueduct at Pont Cysylite, on Ellesmere Port, proclaimed by Sir Walter Scott as "the most impressive work of art I have ever seen." Telford was buried in Westminster Cathedral, having died penniless, the result of a prodigious talent who often undertook projects without being paid.
Bill Shankly, arguably the greatest football manager ever, was born in Glenbuck, Ayrshire on this day in 1913.His early career saw him winning seven caps for Scotland as a professional footballer. At the age of 33, Shankly was approaching the end of his playing days, so when the 1946-47 season brought professional football back post-war, Shankly embarked on a new career as a manager. After spells at the helms of northern clubs such as Grimsby and Huddersfield, he was appointed chairman of Liverpool in 1959. At this time Liverpool was languishing in the Second Division, with a crumbling stadium, and disorder in the committee ranks. Shankly turned this situation around and elevated Liverpool to the top of the league, the envy of all other clubs. Liverpool became synonymous with football, as well as music, in the sixties, when Liverpool F.C. won the F.A. cup in the 1965 season. A European trophy followed in the form of the UEFA cup. Bill Shankly, who died of a heart attack in 1981, will always be remembered as a charismatic legend of British football.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 5, 2005 19:14:10 GMT 10
September 4
September 4 1241 - King Alexander III born at Roxburgh.
September 4 1650 - Scotland got a taste of the military skill of Oliver Cromwell today in 1650 as his Roundheads thump our boys at the battle of Dunbar. This small Scottish town has experienced many clashes in its time, situated as it is on the road to Edinburgh from England. September 4 1962 - Last tramcar run in Glasgow (to Auchenshuggle).
September 4 1964 - Forth Road Bridge opened by the Queen. At 6,156 feet long and a centre span of 3300 feet, it was the longest in Europe at that time.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 6, 2005 21:35:30 GMT 10
September 5
September 5 1750 - Poet Robert Fergusson born in Edinburgh.
ROBERT Fergusson was born in the Cap and Feather Close in Edinburgh’s Old Town, his family having moved south from Aberdeenshire two years previous. He was to become a natural poet in the Scots tongue, before tragically dying at the age of 24.
He studied at the University of St Andrews, where he began writing poetry and developed a gift for satire. He was popular with fellow students but did not gain a degree from the university, returning instead to Edinburgh to become a copying clerk in a legal office. In 1771 he began to contribute poems to Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine.
He was noted for his personal vivacity and visionary poetry, and his invocation of Auld Reekie, Edinburgh’s Old Town. His poems were witty, realistic and humerous, and he was thought of as the natural successor to Scottish poet Allan Ramsey. It was Robert Burns that gave Fergusson his greatest tribute, describing him as "my elder brother in misfortune, by far my elder brother in the muse". Burns credits Fergusson as the man that influenced him the most.
Indeed, Burns’ "Holy Fair" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night" stem from Fergusson's "Leith Races" and "The Farmer's Ingle." But Fergusson’s most famous poems like "The Daft Days," "Address to the Tron Kirk Bell," and the famous "Auld Reekie" display Fergusson’s innate understanding of verse and phrase, and his deft hand at imagery and invocation.
Fergussion lived a short and tragic life, and by 1773 had given up his clerk’s job suffering from acute depression. A fall later that year led to a deterioration in his mental health and he was placed in a public asylum, where he died in 1774.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 6, 2005 21:36:31 GMT 10
September 6 1715 - The Earl of Mar unfurled the standard of the "Old Pretender" in Braemar at the start of the first Jacobite Uprising.
Today in 1715 the Earl of Mar raised the standard of James Francis Edward Stuart at Braemar, so beginning the first Jacobite rebellion. The rebellion was not much of a success, primarily because the Earl of Mar was a poor military leader. After attempting to march on Edinburgh, Mar's forces were met by government troops at Sheriffmuir in Perthshire where, after a bit of a scuffle, the Jacobites withdrew. Thirty years later his son, the "Young Pretender" had another pop at restoring a Catholic monarchy to Britain which ended in spectacular failure and the systematic repression of the Highland culture he claimed to represent.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 8, 2005 19:08:23 GMT 10
September 7 1842 - Queen Victoria's first visit to Edinburgh.
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Post by Elly on Sept 10, 2005 14:22:10 GMT 10
September 9 1513 James IV and the flower of Scotland's nobility were killed in battle at Flodden Field, near Branxton, in the English county of Northumberland.
September 9 1543 Mary Queen of Scots crowned at Stirling Castle.
September 9 1758 Birth of painter Alexander Naysmyth in Edinburgh.
September 9 1935 Benny Lynch won the World Flyweight boxing title, defeating Jackie Brown in 2 rounds.
September 9 1963 Jim Clark became the (then) world's youngest F1 motor racing champion.
September 9 1978
Poet and Nationalist C M Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) died.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 10, 2005 14:22:58 GMT 10
September 10 1547 English defeated Scots at Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, near Edinburgh. The battle was sparked by English demands that Edward VI of England (aged 10) should marry Mary Queen of Scots (aged 5) - an event known as the "Rough Wooing". It is estimated that 15,000 Scots were killed, 1500 captured and English losses amounted to only 500.
September 10 1771 Birth of Mungo Park at Foulshiels, near Selkirk. He became an explorer and doctor who charted the course of the River Niger.
September 10 1897 HRH Duke of York opened the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 10, 2005 14:23:49 GMT 10
September 11 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge, Wallace (as famously portrayed by Mel Gibson in "Braveheart") defeats Edward I.
September 11 1700 James Thomson, Scots author of "Rule Britannia", born.
September 11 1945 The Citizens Theatre on Glasgow moved from its original location in Buchanan Street to the heart of the Gorbals, one of the most run-down parts of the city.
September 11 1997 Referendum on Devolution which approved the creation of a new Scottish Parliament by a substantial majority.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 17, 2005 21:26:08 GMT 10
September 12 1715 - Jacobites defeated government forces at Battle of Sheriffmuir. September 12 1315 - Thomas Dun, a privateer from Scotland, sailed into Holyhead, captured an English ship and over-ran Anglesay.
September 12 1918 - Today marks the death in 1918 of George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia. Born in 1845 in Renfrewshire, Reid emigrated with his family when he was young. He led the Free Trade Party and became Premier of New South Wales in 1901. He became Prime Minister in 1904, but lasted only till 1905.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 17, 2005 21:28:01 GMT 10
September 13 1644 - Battle of Aberdeen, in which the Marquis of Montrose captured the city. September 13 1645 - Royalist troops under Marquis of Montrose defeated by Covenanters led by David Leslie at Battle of Philiphaugh.
September 13 1913 - Sir Robert Lorimer, architect and exponent of the Scottish Vernacular Revival, died. September 13 1938 - John Smith, politician and leader of the Labour Party, born at Dalmally, Argyll.
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Elly
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Post by Elly on Sept 17, 2005 21:29:00 GMT 10
September 14
September 14 1402 - Scots led by 4th Earl of Douglas defeated at the Battle of Homildon Hill by English army led by Percy 'Hotspur'.
September 14 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart, occupied Edinburgh.
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