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July
Jul 13, 2006 3:44:47 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 13, 2006 3:44:47 GMT 10
July 12
July 12 1570 Earl of Lennox appointed Regent of Scotland.
July 12 1690 William III defeated James VII in the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland.
On July 12th 1698 a small fleet of five ships set out for the Isthmus of Darien in Panama carrying Scotland's hopes of founding a new empire on board. The driving force behind the expedition was William Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England. The expedition arrived on 30th October 1698 and the first act of the pioneers was to bury those among them who had died en route. Within seven months of their arrival a third of the 1200 who had travelled were dead and the consensus among those left was to abandon the venture
On July 12 1803 Rev Thomas Guthrie, founder of the Ragged Schools, was born. After founding a savings bank at his first parish in Angus, Guthrie, shocked by the poverty surrounding his new charge in Edinburgh's old town, founded a "Ragged School", a privately funded school intended to give the poor a good education on Protestant lines. This model was succesfully copied across the country and provided the basis for the state industrial schools. Guthrie was also active during the Disruption, becoming a leading light in the new Free Church and serving as its moderator in 1862.
July 12 1928 Broadcaster Sir Alastair Burnet born.
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July
Jul 13, 2006 8:07:03 GMT 10
Post by neil6147 on Jul 13, 2006 8:07:03 GMT 10
13th July
Today in July 1820 saw the commencement of the trial, in Stirling, of the Radicals captured at the Battle of Bonnymuir. All those accused faced the charge of High Treason and two of the accused, John Baird and Andrew Hardie, were subsequently executed on 8 September 1820.
On this day in 1249 Alexander III, King of Scots, was crowned at Scone. Crowned at the age of eight, Alexander ruled Scotland for 35 years. His reign became known as "The Golden Age" as it was a largely peaceful and prosperous time for the Scots, with only a minor conflict with Norway over the Inner Hebrides to mar it. The end to his reign was a disaster for the nation, however, as he died without issue, and the subsequent infighting amongst the nobility led to English overlordship.
14th July
On 14th July 1648 Cavalry units from the Scottish Engager army clashed with Lambert's Parliamentarian cavalry at Penrith. The Engager forces were commanded by the Duke of Hamilton, who made several mistakes in planning and executing his advance south, and quickly made themselves unpopular with the local population for their plundering and excesses.
On 14 July 1820 John Gibson Lockhart, the Scottish biographer, was born. Lockhart's first venture into the world of literature was as co-editor of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine which he transformed into one of the leading periodicals of its day. Son-in-law of the novelist, Sir Walter Scott, he himself was also a noted novelist, writing, among other works, a depiction of the temptation of a rural minister, Adam Blair. However, he is best known as a biographer, particularly of his father-in-law, Walter Scott, although he also wrote noted biographies of Burns and Napoleon.
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July
Jul 14, 2006 3:35:34 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 14, 2006 3:35:34 GMT 10
July 15
July 15 1889 National Portrait Gallery for Scotland opened in Edinburgh.
On this day in 1909 William Gemmell Cochran, Scottish mathematician, was born in Rutherglen. Cochran is highly regarded in the field of statistics, having carried out fundamental work on the design of agricultural experiments, forecasting the effects of weather on crop yields and sample survey design. During the Second World War he worked in America, examining probabilities of hits in naval warfare, and by 1945 he was working on bombing raid strategies.
On 15 July 1914 Gavin Maxwell, the Scottish novelist and naturalist, was born. Maxwell was born into a family of minor aristocracy and grew up in rural Wigtownshire, where he acquired a lifelong love of nature. During the war, Maxwell served as a Commando instructor on Arisaig, which fired a love for the Highlands. Following the war he turned to writing, after the failure of a basking shark fishery. He is best known as the author of 'Ring of Bright Water', a touching tale of his attempts to establish an otter sanctuary in Sandaig.
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July
Jul 14, 2006 3:40:15 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 14, 2006 3:40:15 GMT 10
July 16
July 16 1309 James Stewart, High Steward of Scotland, died.
July 16 1328 David II, son of Robert I (the Bruce) married Joan, sister of Edward III (he was 4, she was 7).
On 16 July 1832 31 Shetland "sixerns" and a total of 105 crewmen were lost in a storm. The event is still remembered as "The Bad Day". A London Distress Fund was set up and raised the sum of £3000. The money was raised for the dependants of the crofter-fishermen lost. The crew of one boat did manage a lucky escape from the storm as they were picked up by a passing American sloop. However, the Captain of the American vessel refused to alter his course to Philadelphia and so, despite passing close to Orkney, the survivors had to cross the Atlantic and endure a further six months away from home before returning.
July 16 1970 13th Commonwealth Games opened in Edinburgh.
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July
Jul 17, 2006 7:48:30 GMT 10
Post by neil6147 on Jul 17, 2006 7:48:30 GMT 10
17th July On 17 July 1695 the Bank of Scotland was established under an Act of the Scottish Parliament. Fittingly, it was a Scot, William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England, since it was an Englishman, John Holland, who was largely responsible for the foundation of the Bank of Scotland. Holland was a successful merchant in the City of London, and was responsible for drawing up the Constitution of the bank and the Act which was passed into the Statute Book. He also served as the Bank's first Governor.
On July 17 1790 economist, Adam Smith, died in Edinburgh. Regarded as the father of the science of Economics and author of the pioneering work, 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations', Smith was a leading exponenent of free-market economics, arguing that the "invisible hand" of self-interest guides the most efficient use of resources in an economy, and that unbridled market forces would bring about a balanced society.
18th July On 18 July 1593 King James VI was taken prisoner by the Earl of Bothwell at Holyrood. The king remained as Bothwell's prisoner throughout July and August, as Bothwell enjoyed the support of Elizabeth of England. However, once James had managed to extricate himself from Bothwell's clutches, he determined to exact revenge, issuing a strong rebuke to Elizabeth for supporting his rival and crushing Bothwell's forces on the field of battle
July 18 1948 saw the birth of Jim Watt, Scottish boxer. After a successful amateur career, Watt turned professional in 1968 and quickly rose to the top of the lightweight division before adding British and European titles to his collection during the 1970s. The pinnacle of his career came when he became world lightweight champion between 1979 and 1981. On his retiral Watt had won 38 of his 48 professional bouts. As a matter of interest Jim Watt does commentary for the boxing. And also owns his own Car Showroom in Glasgow.
19th July
The 19 July 1333 saw the Battle of Halidon Hill at Berwick, where an English army, led by Edward III and Edward Balliol, defeated the Scots forces under the command of Sir Archibald Douglas. The defeat was mainly down to the English archers who devastated the Scottish ranks, inflicting terrible losses, including six earls, 70 barons and over 500 knights.
On 19 July 1896 AJ Cronin, the Scottish novelist, was born. Cronin is most fondly remembered as the creator of the hugely popular character, Dr.Finlay. He also achieved acclaim as the author of the novels 'The Keys to the Kingdom', 'The Stars Look Down' and 'The Citadel'.
20th July
On this day in 1811 James Bruce, the 8th Lord Elgin, Scottish Liberal statesman and diplomat, was born. During his career he served as Governor-General of Canada, 1847-54, and India, 1862-63, and was also special envoy to China and Japan. During a visit to China he burnt down the emperor's famous Summer Palace in Beijing, destroying thousands of priceless works of art, in order to intimidate the Chinese emperor and force him to sign an unratified treaty.
On this day in 1819 geologist, John Playfair, died. Playfair pioneered the theory that rivers carve out their own valleys. He was a close friend of geologist, James Hutton, and wrote 'Illustrations of the Huttonion Theory of the Earth', which amplified and expanded upon Hutton's revolutionary ideas about how the Earth was formed.
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July
Jul 20, 2006 21:52:40 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 20, 2006 21:52:40 GMT 10
July 21
On 21 July 1796 Robert Burns died in Dumfries. Burns was aged only 37 at his death. The cause of death appears to have been heart failure, probably brought on by the hard physical work done in his youth. His widow, Jean Armour, gave birth to a son on the day of her husband's funeral. However, Maxwell, named after Burns's doctor, died in infancy. On 21 July 1827 Archibald Constable, the Scottish publisher, died. Responsible for printing many of Sir Walter Scott's works, Constable was the owner of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for a decade and was responsible for the commissioning of the 6th edition
July 21 1918 Writer, broadcaster and Burns Scholar Maurice Lindsay born.
July 21 1985 Sandy Lyle won Open Golf Championship.
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July
Jul 21, 2006 17:27:51 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 21, 2006 17:27:51 GMT 10
July 22
Today in 1298 the Battle of Falkirk took place. King Edward I of England defeated the Scots under Sir William Wallace. The defeat caused Wallace, the "Guardian of Scotland", to leave the country in self-imposed exile while the English continued to exercise overlordship. On 22 July 1793 Alexander MacKenzie, the Stornoway-born explorer, reached the Pacific Ocean from Canada by land in the first crossing of the North American continent. Mackenzie marked his triumph by carving the words "Alex Mackenzie from Canada by Land 22 July 1793" on a rock. On this day in 1902 Marion Wilberforce, the pioneering Scottish aviatrix, was born. One of the first eight women pilots to be recruited by the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1940, her job was to fly new aircraft from the factories to the squadrons. This work was originally done by men, generally pilots who were not fully fit for operational flying and who were nicknamed "Ancient and Tattered Airmen". The women were nicknamed "Atagirls". In order to do the job the women had to overcome the deeply ingrained sexual prejudices of men in politics and the armed forces.
July 22 1913 Edinburgh Zoo opened for the first time.
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July
Jul 21, 2006 17:33:59 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Jul 21, 2006 17:33:59 GMT 10
July 23
On July 23 1637 Jenny Geddes threw a stool at the Dean of St. Giles Cathedral, sparking the movement to the Covenant. Geddes was objecting to the use of the new prayer book authorised by Charles I, her immortal words being "Dost thou say Mass in my lug?" There is a lot of doubt as to the veracity of the story, although it is true that the prayer book, as with all of Charles' attempts to introduce Episcopacy ino Scotland, made him hugely unpopular and led to the signing of the National Covenant in 1638. On 23 July 1745 Prince Charles Edward Stewart, 'The Young Pretender', landed in Eriskay with only seven men. Charles soon managed to talk round Cameron of Lochiel to his cause and within a month had raised his standard at Glenfinnan. The last Jacobite Rising was to follow.
July 23 1886 Birth in Glasgow of Arthur Whitten Brown (later Sir Arthur), companion of Alcock on the first west to east aircraft crossing of the Atlantic.
On this day in 1946 James Maxton, the Scottish Socialist politician, died. Maxton was born into a middle-class family in Glasgow, but was converted to Socialism while working as a teacher, joining the Independent Labour Party soon after. Elected as MP for Bridgeton in 1922, he retained the seat until his death. He often criticised the government of Ramsay MacDonald for its moderate policies, and when the National Government was formed by MacDonald he successfully persuaded the Independent Labour Party to break away from the Labour Party.
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July
Jul 25, 2006 1:33:23 GMT 10
Post by neil6147 on Jul 25, 2006 1:33:23 GMT 10
24 July 1411 saw the Battle of Harlaw, near Inverurie. The battle was fought between the Crown forces under the Earl of Mar and a Highland army led by Donald, Lord of the Isles. Heavy casualties were inflicted on both sides but victory went to the Royal forces as the Highlanders withdrew. The city of Aberdeen suffered heavy losses with the death of Provost Robert Davidson and many of the City Burgesses fighting on the Crown side.
On the 24 July 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate the throne. Lords Ruthven and Lindsay visited Mary while she was held at Loch Leven castle and threatened her with immediate execution if she did not sign the abdication papers there and then. Unsurprisingly, Mary abdicated, leaving her infant son James as monarch and her half-brother Moray as Regent.
25th July On this day in 2002 George Bruce, the Scottish poet, broadcaster and critic, died at the age of 93. Bruce was one of the poets of the Scottish literary renaissance, initiated by Hugh MacDiarmid in the 1920s, which brought to prominence Sorley Maclean, Norman MacCaig, George Mackay Brown, Hamish Henderson and Iain Crichton Smith. He became well-known as the producer of 'Counterpoint', Scotland’s first television arts programme. In 1970 he left the BBC, becoming Glasgow University’s first fellow in creative writing. As well as publishing poetry and anthologies, he was for 12 years a theatre and literary critic for 'The Sunday Times'. Over a period of 60 years he was to publish eight books of poetry in both English and Scots; he also edited six anthologies of poetry, and seven books on Scottish art and culture.
On 25 July 1843 Charles Macintosh, inventor of the plastic mac, died. Macintosh discovered the first rainproof cloth in 1818, by joining two sheets of fabric together with dissolved indiarubber. Although Macintosh is best known for his eponymously titled coats, he made significant advances in many fields of chemistry. As well as inventing a revolutionary bleaching powder with Charles Tennant, he also discovered a fast method of using carbon gases to convert iron to steel, and devised a hot-blast process which produced high quality cast iron.
On 26 July 1513 James IV responded to pleas for assistance from France and declared war on England. Aside from assisting the French, who had been invaded by an English army, James was also aggrieved at England's seizing of two Scottish ships and the non-payment of part of the dowry for his wife, Margaret Tudor. The war did not go to plan, however, and the Scots suffered probably their greatest military defeat at Flodden in September where James was killed.
27 July 1689 saw the Battle of Killiecrankie. The battle occurred when the government sent north an army to deal with Viscount Dundee and his newly formed Jacobite army in its Atholl heartland. However, at Killiecrankie the Jacobites delivered a crushing blow to the government troops under General Mackay, but at the loss of Dundee. Without Dundee's leadership, the uprising foundered after meeting strong resistance from Cameronians at Dunkeld. During the battle, one of Mackay's soldiers, a Donald MacBean, is said to have jumped 18ft across the River Garry to safety at what is now known as the 'Soldier's Leap'.
On 27 July 1913 John Cairncross, Scottish spy, was born. Cairncross was the so-called "fifth man" in the ring of spies recruited at Cambridge University in the 1930s to work for Moscow. Soviet double-agent, Oleg Gordievsky, who defected to Britain in 1985, had publicly named Cairncross, a former Foreign Office and Treasury official, as the fifth man, but this was denied by Cairncross. However, in 1991 he admitted to being the fifth man in the spy ring comprising Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt. In 1995, he returned to Britain after 40 years of self-imposed exile to write his memoirs. He died before they were completed.
On 28th July 1645 at Dunkeld, Perthshire, the Royalist Marquess of Montrose beat General Baillie in a skirmish which was part of the English Civil War. For a war of positions the Highlanders had neither aptitude nor inclination, and at Dunkeld the greater part of them went home.
On 28 July 1683, Queen Anne Stuart married Prince George of Denmark. Anne was the second daughter of the catholic King James II, Duke of York (1685-88), but was raised a protestant under the guidance of her uncle, King Charles II. Her marriage to George was devoted but politically unremarkable. Of her 18 pregnancies between 1683 and 1700, five children were born alive and only one, a son, outlived infancy, but he did not survive to take the throne, and she remained heirless.
29th July On this day in 1567 King James VI was crowned at Stirling. Regarded as 'The Wisest Fool in Christendom,' he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. He subsequently only revisited his northern kingdom once. One-year-old Charles James was crowned King James VI of Scotland in a Protestant ceremony in the Church of the Holy Rude, close to Stirling Castle; John Knox preached a sermon. It was exactly two years since Mary married Darnley.
29 July 1946 saw the birth of Bill Forsyth, Scottish film director and screenwriter. Born in Whiteinch in 1946, the son of a plumber, Forsyth wrote the script of Gregory’s Girl (1981) to showcase the talents of Glasgow Youth Theatre. Lack of funding prompted him to make That Sinking Feeling (1979) instead, the success of which led to him being given the go-ahead to make Gregory’s Girl. The quirky and touching tale of teenage love became one of the true classics of Scottish cinema, and Forsyth received the British Academy Award for Best Screenplay. He further explored his distinctive style of gentle, character-driven humour in the internationally acclaimed Local Hero (1983).
30th July Today in 1971 saw the beginning of the work-in at John Brown's Clydebank Shipbuilding Yard, organised by stalwart Socialist, Jimmy Reid. This was in response to the Ted Heath Tory government's plans to liquidate the yard - Reid exposed these as unethical. As a result, Heath was forced to admit defeat and closure was delayed for a number of years.
30th July On this day in 1547 the Protestants responsible for the murder of Cardinal David Beaton surrendered St Andrews Castle to French forces. Beaton’s execution in 1546 of the popular preacher, George Wishart, sparked a rebellion of Protestant lairds who seized the castle and killed Beaton. They held the castle for a year but were forced to surrender to the French army. John Knox, who had joined the Castilians, as they were known, served 19 months on French galleys, but eventually he and the other prisoners, except for one who died in captivity, regained their freedom through escape or release.
31st July On this day in 1187, MacWilliam was beaten by William I of Scotland at Mamgarvia Moor, Moray. William I faced revolts in Galloway where he had the royal castle of Dumfries constructed to help keep the peace, and in Ross where the Earls of Orkney were attempting to extend their influence. The rebellions in the north affected lands as far south as Perthshire, and William took several years to restore order. His Galloway campaign was hindered by the northern revolt, in 1181, of Donald MacWilliam, grandson of King Duncan II, who wanted William's kingship. Eventually Donald was killed in 1187 at Mamgarvia Moor by Roland of Galloway.
Today in 1780 the first edition of Robert Burns' poems, "The Kilmarnock Edition", was published by John Wilson of Kilmarnock, under the title of "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect". It cost three shillings and the entire print run of 612 copies sold out within a month, justifying Burns's belief in his own abilities and in the merit of his poems.
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