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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:39:38 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:39:38 GMT 10
August 1
On 1 August 1545 Andrew Melville, the Church reformer, founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, Principal of Glasgow University and St Mary's College, St Andrews, was born. Melville is viewed as the successor to John Knox as the leader of Scottish Protestanism. His work, the 'Second Book of Discipline', advocated Presbyterian, rather than Episcopal government, which brought him into conflict with his monarch, James VI, who sought to control the Scottish Church through his bishops. Melville was also a keen advocate of education in Scotland, and is credited with helping to reform Scottish universities through the introduction of European teaching methods.
August 1 1714 Death of Queen Anne; George I, Elector of Hanover becomes king.
On this day in 1724 Sir Patrick Hume, Lord Marchmont, the Scottish statesman, died. Imprisoned for his opposition to James II's policies against Scottish Presbyterians, he later escaped to Europe where he became one of William of Orange's chief lieutenants. Following the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and played a vital role in securing William's rule in Scotland.
August 1 1747 Proscription Act introduced, banning tartan and the carrying of weapons. The penalty for a first offence was six months in jail and a second offence resulted in transportation for seven years.
August 1 1967 University of Dundee which was incorporated into the University of St Andrews in 1890, constituted as a separate university.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:45:05 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:45:05 GMT 10
August 2
August 2 1894 Death duties introduced for the first time in Britain.
Today in 1910 Roger MacDougall, the Scottish playwright and film screenwriter, was born. MacDougall was the author of the classic comedy play "The Man in the White Coat", which he also wrote the film script for as an Ealing Comedy. He also wrote the scripts for the Ealing comedies, "A Touch of Larceny" and "The Mouse That Roared". His other plays include, "Escapade" and "To Dorothy a Son" bopth adapted as films. MacDougall also treated himself when diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, changing his diet and making a substantial recovery from the disease.
On 2 August 1922 Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, died. Although he is best known for this invention Bell was also well known for his work on deafness, including teaching a young Helen Keller. His work in this field was a continuation of that which had been begun by his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a method of teaching speech to the deaf. Bell also invented an air-cooling system, a way of desalinating sea-water and a sorting machine for punch-coded census cards. Later in life he also became interested in aeronautics, inventing several large kites capable of carrying the weight of a human and producing a hydrofoil craft in 1919 that managed to reach the speed of 70 mph.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:48:08 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:48:08 GMT 10
August 3
August 3 1305 William Wallace betrayed and handed over to the English.
On this day in 1460, King James II was killed during the siege of Roxburgh Castle. James was regarded as one of the better Scottish monarchs of the period, ending the feud between the Livingstons and Crichtons, and finally defeating the rebellious Douglases. He also established many trade links on the continent and through his wife, Mary of Gueldres, and the marriages of his sisters obtained many valuable political alliances. However, James took too close an interest in the new military invention, the cannon, and met his end, at the age of only thirty, when a Scottish cannon burst its casing killing the young king outright.
August 3 1573 Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange executed, after defending Edinburgh Castle on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots from May 1568 to May 1573.
On 3 August 1855 inventor George Johnstone was born at West Linton near Edinburgh. A son of the manse, he trained as an engineer and, in 1894, became the first Scottish motorist driving an imported Daimler. By the following year he had invented his own car, 'the Ghost Tram.' In 1896, he became the first person in Britain to be convicted of a motoring offence when police in Glasgow stopped him in St. Enoch's Square and he failed to convince the court that his car did not constitute a locomotive, and he incurred a fine.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:50:53 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:50:53 GMT 10
August 4
Today in 1588 saw the death of Archibald Douglas, the 8th Earl of Angus, the Scottish aristocrat and soldier. Douglas became a formidable power in Scotland under the patronage of his uncle, the earl of Morton, the regent for young King James VI. However, after Morton's death his fall from grace was just as rapid. In 1581, the vengeful king charged him with treason and he was forced to flee to England. Douglas was a fierce Presbyterian and came to lead (with covert assistance from the English Queen Elizabeth) the other Protestant Scottish exiles in England. He was reconciled with the king in 1584 and returned home, but his strong religious views excluded him any position of power and influence under James.
On 4 August 1870 Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish music hall comedian, was born in Portobello. The biggest Scottish entertainer of his age, his most popular songs included "I Love a Lassie" and "Roamin' in the Gloamin'. Lauder was the first entertainer to perform for soldiers at the front line during the First World War and earned a knighthood in 1919 for this and for his work in recruiting Scots for the army, including paying for 100 pipers to march through Scotland as a recruitment drive. His signature tune was "Keep Right on to the End of the Road", supposedly written after he lost his only son during the Great War.
August 4 1900 Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, born.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:53:45 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:53:45 GMT 10
August 5
August 5 1388 James, Earl Douglas, died out of sight of his army, in a bush, at Battle of Otterburn in which Scots defeat Henry Percy, (Hotspur) but with the loss of the Earl of Douglas.
August 5 1695 The Scottish Parliament established a General Post Office.
On 5 August 1704, the Act of Security was passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Act of Security, which allowed the Three Estates to choose another successor to Queen Anne than the choice made by the English Parliament, if Scottish conditions were not met, was approved by the Scottish Parliament. The English responded with the Alien Act (1705) which demanded that if the Scots did not accept the Hanoverian succession, or begin proceedings on a union of parliaments, then Scottish imports to England would be banned and Scots living in England would be treated as aliens. On 5 August 1923 Scottish broadcaster, Eileen Mitchell, was born. Mitchell was the woman whose voice was known to millions through the phrase, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin". She presented BBC Radio's daily children's series 'Listen with Mother', and also sang many of the nursery rhymes in the programme on which she appeared for about 15 years. When the programme spawned BBC TV's "Watch With Mother", she supplied one of the voices in 'The Woodentops'.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:56:09 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:56:09 GMT 10
August 6
August 6 1678 First Glasgow/Edinburgh coach service began from White Horse Inn, Edinburgh.
On 6 August 1796 Scottish artist, David Allan, died. Allan was noted for his historical subjects and portraits and was nicknamed the "Scottish Hogarth". In addition to his portraits, Allan provided illustrations for Allan Ramsay's 'The Gentle Shepherd' and for some of the poems of Robert Burns, including engravings of 'Tam o'Shanter' and 'The Cotter's Saturday Night'.
August 6 1820 Donald Alexander Smith - later Lord Strathcona - born in Forres. A pioneer of the Hudson Bay Company in the North-West, he later championed the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada and drove the last spike at Craigellachie, British Columbia.
August 6 1881 Birth of Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin.
August 6 1988 "Scotland on Sunday" newspaper, a sister paper of the "Scotsman", is published for the first time
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August
Aug 3, 2006 6:57:32 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 6:57:32 GMT 10
August 7
On 7th August, 1914, Lord Kitchener, the war minister, began a mass recruiting campaign, three days after Britain declared war on Germany. Kitchener's appeal called for men aged between 19 and 30 to join the British Army. At first an average of 33,000 men were joining up each day but this was still not enough, and three weeks later Kitchener raised the recruiting age to 35. By the middle of September over 500,000 men had volunteered their services. By the end of 1915 some two million men had volunteered their services, including the entire Hearts first team squad who joined en masse leading supporters to the recruiting office. By the war's end a total of 147,609 Scots had been killed, a fifth of Britain's dead from a country that made up only 10% of its population.
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August
Aug 3, 2006 7:00:22 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 3, 2006 7:00:22 GMT 10
August 8
Today in 1296 the Scottish Coronation Stone, the Stone of Destiny, was removed from Scone Abbey. The stone was taken on the orders of King Edward I of England, and was transported to Westminster Abbey, where it was used to crown English monarchs until it was returned to Scotland in 1996. The stone itself is a block of red sandstone, and was said to have been used by Jacob, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, as a pillow.
August 8 1503 King James IV married Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England. The marriage was known as the Union of the Thistle and the Rose.
August 8 1946 Former World flyweight boxing champion Benny Lynch died.
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August
Aug 4, 2006 7:39:28 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 4, 2006 7:39:28 GMT 10
August 9
On 9th of August 1757 the famous engineer, Thomas Telford, was born in rural Dumfriesshire. Telford went on to build many important works of engineering across Britain including the Menai Suspension Bridge and the Caledonian Canal. He was also responsible for the building of much of the road network in the Highlands, earning himself the nickname "The Colossus of Roads."
On 9th of August 1913 Professor James Gordon, the Scottish industrial chemist and engineer, was born. Gordon was a pioneer of materials science, which sought to explain the gap between chemistry and structural mechanics. In 1968, he published his findings in the ground-breaking 'The New Science of Strong Materials'.
August 9 1935 Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire opened after David McIntyre set up Scottish Aviation Ltd. Aircraft had been flying from the area since 1913.
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August
Aug 9, 2006 6:36:37 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 9, 2006 6:36:37 GMT 10
August 10
August 10 1460 King James III crowned at Kelso Abbey.
August 10 1624 Death of Esther Inglis, calligrapher and minituarist.
On August 10, 1784 artist, Allan Ramsay Jnr died. Son of the poet Allan Ramsay Snr, he was a leading portrait painter of his day. Some of his subjects included King George III, historian Edward Gibbon, philosopher David Hume and Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald. However not all those who sat for him were overjoyed with the results as French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau was reputed to be unimpressed by his portrait, although it did not prevent the two men from becoming friends.
August 10 1872 Education (Scotland) Act passed, providing elementary education for all children.
August 10 1935 Perth Museum and Art Gallery opened by the Duke and Duchess of York.
On 10 August 1937, John Hodge, the Scottish Labour politician, died. Hodge became the first Labour minister serving as Minister of Labour in the second coalition government during the First World War. Hodge faced criticism from the left wing of the Labour Party for supporting the war, and for his harsh policies when dealing with striking workers during the war years.
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August
Aug 10, 2006 7:34:55 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 10, 2006 7:34:55 GMT 10
August 11
August 11 1306 Battle of Dalry, Robert I, attacked and defeated John MacDougall of Lorne, kinsman of John Comyn.
August 11 1332 Battle of Dupplin near Perth in which Edward Balliol defeated the Regent, Earl of Mar.
August 11 1560 Latin Mass prohibited in Scotland by Parliament as Protestant faith gained the ascendancy.
On 11 August 1892 poet Christopher Murray Grieve was born in Langholm. Grieve wrote under the pseudonym, Hugh MacDiarmid, and is considered the driving force behind Scottish Literary Renaissance which took shape during the 1920s. MacDiarmind viewed his mission as rescuing Scottish culture and modernising it to reflect 20th Century Scotland. He also tried to resurrect the Scots language as a vital part of maintaning an independent Scottish culture. His masterpiece, A Drunk Man Lokks at the Thistle, reflects his abhorrence at the way Scottish culture had developed. MacDiarmid remained a man of contradictions throughout his life being both a founder of the Naional Party of Scotland and a member of the Communist Party - although he was thrown out of both parties, but his influence as an artist can still be felt in today's Scottish writing.
On this day in 1919 Andrew Carnegie, the Dunfermline-born steel industrialist and philanthropist, died. Throughout his later life Carnegie established a number of foundations for education and research such as the Carnegie Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Carnegie himself was devastated that his attempts to prevent global war had come to nothing. In his essay, 'The Gospel of Wealth', he argued that after making their fortunes wealthy men should distribute the surplus for the general welfare; a practice he followed.
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August
Aug 11, 2006 8:16:14 GMT 10
Post by LLady on Aug 11, 2006 8:16:14 GMT 10
August 12
On 12 August 1332 the Battle of Dupplin Moor was fought. The battle was fought between the Scottish forces of King David II, led by the regent, the Earl of Mar, and English forces supporting the claim of Edward Balliol. Not for the last time in battles with the English, the Scots squandered their numerical advantage, and following a confused attack were routed with heavy losses by Edward Balliol's army.
August 12 1922 Popular character actor Fulton McKay was born in Paisley.
On 12 August 1990 Roy Williamson, the Scottish folk musician and songwriter, died. Williamson was one of the famous duo, the Corries, along with Ronnie Browne. It was Williamson who penned the song "Flower of Scotland", now used by Scottish sporting teams as an anthem.
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