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1 March 1546: Cardinal Beaton has the Protestant George Wishart burned at the stake at St Andrews for heresy.
1 March 1979: The Scots vote on devolution. 51.6% of those voting vote "yes", but the turnout is only 63.8%. As a result, only 39.2% of the whole Scottish electorate votes "yes", less than required under the Scotland Act. The Scottish National Party then tables a motion of no confidence in Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, which it wins by one vote. In the General Election that follows in May 1979, Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of a Conservative government.
2 March 1316: The birth of King Robert II of Scotland.
2 March 1619: The death at Hampton Court Palace near London of Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of King James I of England and VI of Scotland.
2 March 1854: The death in Saint Petersburg of Sir James Wylie, the Scottish doctor who rose to become the Russian imperial court surgeon and served three tsars.
2 March 1938: The arrest by MI5 of Jessie Jordan, the Dundee hairdresser who would later be convicted as a German spy.
3 March 1792: The death in London of Robert Adam, the most famous of the Adam family of architects.
3 March 1847: The birth in Edinburgh of Alexander Graham Bell, who will go on to develop and patent the telephone.
3 March 1961: The US nuclear submarine tender USS Proteus arrives at the new Polaris base at Holy Loch.
4 March 1756: The artist Sir Henry Raeburn is born in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh.
4 March 1890: The Forth Rail Bridge is officially opened by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, a fortnight after the first complete end-to-end crossing by a train.
4 March 1936: The racing driver Jim Clark is born at Kilmany House Farm in Fife.
5 March 1324: The birth of King David II of Scotland.
5 March 1790: The death of Flora MacDonald, chiefly remembered as a heroine of the Jacobite cause for her part in helping Bonnie Prince Charlie after the 1745 uprising.
5 March 1929: The death of David Dunbar Buick, the founder of the Buick Motor Company.
5 March 1953: The paddle steamer The Maid of the Loch is lowered into Loch Lomond for the first time.
6 March 757: The death on Bass Rock of Saint Baldred of Tyninghame.
6 March 1457: King James II decrees that there should be regular archery practice and that "football and golf be utterly cried down and not used".
6 March 1708: Prince James Stewart, "The Pretender", sails from Dunkirk for Scotland with with a French fleet and 5,000 troops. His aim is to raise and lead a Jacobite uprising against Queen Anne.
6 March 1923: Scotland's first radio broadcast takes place when Glasgow radio station, 5SC, is launched by the BBC.
7 March 1876: Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone by the US Patent Office.
7 March 1924: The renowned artist and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi is born in Leith.
8 March 1702: King William III/II dies after a fall from his horse. He is succeeded by his sister in law, Queen Anne, who becomes the last Stuart monarch.
8 March 1899: The novelist Eric Linklater is born in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, before spending much of his childhood in Orkney.
8 March 1936: The comic strip Oor Wullie is published for the first time in the weekly Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post.
9 March 1566: Mary Queen of Scots' private secretary, David Rizzio, is murdered in front of her at the Palace of Holyroodhouse by a group including her husband Lord Darnley. The attempted coup that follows fails when Darnley has second thoughts and helps Mary to escape to Dunbar.
9 March 1776: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is published, becoming the best known work of economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith.
10 March 520: St Kessog, the original patron saint of Scotland, is killed at Bandry, on the western shore of Loch Lomond.
10 March 1748: The birth of Professor John Playfair, Professor of Mathematics and later Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.
10 March 1882: The death of Professor Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, the eminent oceanographer who served as chief scientist on the 3½ year 70,000 mile expedition by HMS Challenger, the ship that would have a Space Shuttle named after it.
10 March 1910: The birth in West Dunbartonshire of the author Elizabeth Jane Cameron, best known for her "Reachfar" series of semi-autobiographical novels written under the pseudonym Jane Duncan.
11 March 1876: A meeting is held in the Argyll Arms Hotel in Campbeltown that leads to the formation of the Machrihanish Golf Club.
11 March 1911: The birth of Sir Fitzroy Maclean, the diplomat, soldier, adventurer, writer and politician who, according to some accounts, becomes a partial model for the fictional character of James Bond.
11 March 1955: The death of Sir Alexander Fleming, the eminent biologist primarily remembered for his discovery in 1928 of the antibiotic penicillin.
12 March 1820: The death of Sir Alexander Mackenzie (Alasdair MacCoinnich), the explorer of western Canada.
12 March 1852: The last recorded salmon is caught in Glasgow's River Kelvin as industrial pollution rises. The species does not return to the river until February 1999.
13 March 1395: The death in Aberdeen of John Barbour, the churchman and poet and the first important author to write in the Scots language.
13 March 1873: The Scottish Football Association is formed, making it the second oldest national football association in the world.
13-14 March 1941: Over two nights Clydeside is bombed by the Luftwaffe and over 500 civilians are killed and 48,000 made homeless.
13 March 1996: A lone gunman murders 16 primary school children and their teacher in Dunblane.
14 March 1748: The death of General George Wade, who served as Commander-in-Chief, North Britain, from 1724 to 1740 and whose name is forever attached to the network of military roads he built across the Highlands. He is also the only person identified by name in the United Kingdom's National Anthem.
14 March 1900: The birth in Carriden near Bo'ness of Dame Margaret Kidd QC, the pioneering woman lawyer.
14 March 1952: The first TV signals are broadcast in Scotland from the Kirk o'Shotts transmitter using the 405 line system. The program is a performance by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.
15 March 1617: James I/VI travels north for his first visit to Scotland since he became King of England in 1603.
15 March 1828: The birth in the Gorbals area of Glasgow of the philanthropist and supporter of women's education Isabella Elder.
15 March 2002: Ownership of the island of Gigha is transferred to the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust following a community buyout.
16 March 1834: The birth in Edinburgh of James Hector,the geologist who went on to pursue an eminent scientific career in New Zealand.
16 March 1935: The death in Aberdeen of John Macleod, the academic and doctor who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923.
17 March 1328: The First War of Scottish Independence ends with the Treaty of Edinburgh and Northampton, under which the English Crown recognises that the Kingdom of Scotland is fully independent.
17 March 1473: The birth in Stirling Castle of King James IV of Scotland.
17 March 1951: The cartoon character Dennis the Menace appears for the first time in the comic The Beano.
17 March 1969: The lifeboat stationed at Longhope in Orkney, T.G.B., capsizes with the loss of all eight crew during a severe storm.
18 March 1566: Mary Queen of Scots returns to Edinburgh with an army provided by the Earl of Bothwell and those responsible for the murder of her private secretary David Rizzio, flee, many subsequently being exiled.
18 March 1689: The King's Own Scottish Borderers are raised in Edinburgh by David Leslie, 3rd Earl of Leven. 800 men are recruited within the first two hours.
18 March 1913: The birth in Liverpool of W.H. Murray, one of the greats of Scottish mountaineering, and a man who did as much as or more than anyone else to popularise Scotland as a walking and climbing destination to the generations that followed World War II.
19 March 1286: King Alexander III, aged 44, dies in a fall from his horse en route to be with his new bride Yolande de Dreux in Fife. Once Yolande's child miscarries or is stillborn, his granddaughter Margaret, "The Maid of Norway" becomes Queen of Scots at the age of three.
19 March 1707: The English Parliament ratifies the Treaty of Union.
19 March 1721: The birth at Dalquhurn, north of Dumbarton, of the author Tobias Smollett.
19 March 1813: The birth in Blantyre of David Livingstone, one of the most famous of the European missionaries and explorers who opened up the interior of Africa during the mid 1800s.
19 March 1857: The death of William Henry Playfair, one of the most influential Scottish architects of the 1800s and a man who played a leading role in shaping the Edinburgh we see today.
19 March 1996: The death of William Hutchinson (W.H.) Murray, one of the greats of Scottish mountaineering.
20 March 687: The death on Inner Farne Island of St Cuthbert, the a monk, bishop and hermit regarded as the patron saint of northern England.
20 March 1927: The birth in Outterabrake on Burra, Shetland, of Thomas Fraser, the fisherman who, since his death in 1978, has become internationally famous as a country and western singer.
20 March 1936: The death in Buenos Aires of Robert Cunninghame Graham, the socialist politician who became the first president of the Scottish National Party.
20 March 1993: The theologian, philosopher, and logician John Duns Scotus is beatified by Pope John Paul II and seems destined for the path of sainthood.
21 March 1729: The death in Venice of John Law, the economist sometimes described as the father of finance, who rose to control, then ruin, the economy of France.
21 March 1901: The launch in Dundee of the Royal Research Ship Discovery, the ship that would help Captain Scott make his name as an Antarctic explorer.
21 March 1925: Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh becomes the home of Scottish rugby when 70,000 spectators watch Scotland beat England to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam.
22 March 1406: Twelve year old King James I is captured by pirates off Flamborough Head in Yorkshire while en route to sanctuary in France. They then hand him over to Henry IV of England.
22 March 1727: Niel Gow, the most famous Scottish fiddle player of the 1700s, is born in Strathbraan, to the west of Dunkeld.
22 March 1868: The last fully publicly hanging in Scotland takes place in Perth, of Joseph Bell.
23 March 1708: A French fleet carrying James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Pretender", arrives in the Firth of Forth and seeks to land an invasion force of 5,000 men in Fife. They are prevented from doing so by a squadron of English warships under Admiral Byng, and head back towards Dunkirk without landing.
23 March 1857: Pierre Emile L'Angelier dies of arsenic poisoning in Glasgow. In a sensational subsequent trial his lover, Madeleine Smith, is adjudged "not proven" of his murder.
24 March 1603: Queen Elizabeth I of England dies. Two days later the news reaches 36 year old James VI of Scotland in Edinburgh that he is now also King James I of England. He styles himself "King of Great Britain" and the crowns of Scotland and England are unified under the Stewart dynasty, though increasingly the family name is now spelled "Stuart".
24 March 1908: The death of Sir James David Marwick, the man who as the Glasgow Town Clerk oversaw the development of the city through much of the second half of the 1800s.
25 March 1005: The Battle of Monzievaird takes place just north of Crieff, close to the location of today's Glenturret Distillery. King Kenneth III is killed in the battle by his successor, Malcolm II.
25 March 1306: Robert the Bruce moves to fill the power vacuum in Scotland and crowns himself King Robert I.
25 March 1437: James II is crowned in Edinburgh, aged 6.
25 March 1707: The Scottish Parliament adjourns, and is dissolved three days later. It will not reconvene for 292 years, until 12 May 1999.
25 March 1897: The Scottish Trades Union Congress is formed.
26 March 1402: The murder takes place in Falkland Palace of David Stewart, 1st Duke of Rothesay, the oldest son of King Robert III of Scotland and heir to the throne. He is killed on the orders of his uncle, Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany.
26 March 1797: The death in Edinburgh of James Hutton, considered by many to be the father of modern geology.
26 March 2006: Smoking is prohibited in all enclosed public spaces in Scotland.
27 March 1625: King James I/VI dies at the age of 58. His eldest son, Prince Henry, had died in 1612, so James is succeeded by his younger son, Charles. Charles I is aged 24 and knows little about being a king: except, he believes, that it comes with a Divine Right to rule direct from God.
27 March 1883 : The death at Windsor Castle of John Brown, servant, friend and possibly second husband of Queen Victoria.
27 March 1923: The eminent chemist and physicist Sir James Dewar, inventor of the vacuum flask, dies in London.
27 March 1943: The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Dasher explodes and sinks off the Isle of Arran with the loss of 379 lives.
28 March 1960: Nineteen firemen are killed in the Cheapside Street whisky bond fire in Glasgow, Britain's worst peacetime fire services disaster.
29 March 1298: William Wallace is titled "Guardian of Scotland", but still acts in the name of King John Balliol
29 March 1958: The death at Hutton Castle in the Scottish Borders of Sir William Burrell, the shipping magnate who gifted his huge collection of art, the Burrell Collection, to Glasgow City Council.
29 March 2002: Longannet coal mine in Fife, the last deep coal mine in Scotland, closes following serious flooding, bringing to an end centuries of deep coal mining in the country.
30 March 1296: King Edward I of England attacks Berwick-upon-Tweed. Accounts differ, but some two-thirds of a population of perhaps 12,000 men, women and children are massacred. The Scots, under William Wallace, retaliate with atrocities of their own in Hexham.
30 March 1973: The death of Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon, a pioneering aviator and the man who Deputy German Führer Rudolph Hess flew to Scotland to try to negotiate with in May 1941.
30 March 1824: HMS Unicorn is launched from the No.4 slipway in the Chatham Royal Dockyards. Today she can be visited in Dundee.
31 March 1295: The death at Lochmaben Castle of Robert Bruce or Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, and grandfather of King Robert the Bruce.
31 March 1844: The birth in Selkirk of Andrew Lang, the prolific Scottish historian, translator, journalist, poet, writer, teacher, biographer and anthropologist.
31 March 2000: The Chief of the Clan MacNeil leases Kisimul Castle on Barra to Historic Scotland for 1,000 years.
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