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1 May 1590: King James VI and Anne of Denmark return to Leith, and Anne is crowned Queen of Scotland later that month. James begins a witch-hunt that will claim over a thousand lives in the following hundred years.
1 May 1690: The last organised Jacobite forces are beaten by government troops at the Battle of Cromdale, near Grantown on Spey.
1 May 1707: The Treaty of Union comes into effect. Queen Anne becomes the first sovereign of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1 May 1873: The death in in present-day Zambia of David Livingstone, one of the most famous of the European missionaries and explorers.
1 May 1997: The Labour Party under Tony Blair defeats the Conservatives in the General Election. Outgoing Prime Minister John Major leaves 10 Downing Street to go and watch cricket at Lords. The Conservative Party emerges without a single parliamentary seat in Scotland.
2 May 1316: Edward Bruce, the brother of King Robert the Bruce, is crowned High King of Ireland.
2 May 1568: Mary Queen of Scots escapes from Lochleven Castle and revokes her abdication. She gathers an army and moves towards Dumbarton Castle.
2 May 1901: The Glasgow International Exhibition opens in Kelvingrove Park.
2 May 1933: The Inverness Courier publishes an article about a sighting of "a beast" in Loch Ness by unnamed locals on 14 April. The modern era of the Loch Ness Monster is born.
2 May 1959: The official opening takes place of Scotland's first nuclear power station at Chapelcross in Dumfries & Galloway.
2 May 1963: The Rootes Car Factory opens at Linwood under a Government policy designed to place industry in deprived areas. It produces the Hillman Imp.
3 May 1567: James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell is divorced from his wife, Jean Gordon, to clear the way for his planned wedding to Mary, Queen of Scots.
3 May 1679: Archbishop James Sharp, Primate of Scotland, is attacked and killed while travelling through Fife to St Andrews. The attackers are probably waiting for the Sheriff of Fife, but are happy to murder instead the man leading the forces suppressing the Covenant in Scotland. His murder sparks a wider uprising leading to what is known as the "Killing Time".
3 May 2007: Elections for the Scottish Executive result in no single party having overall control of the Scottish Parliament: though the Scottish National Party emerge as the largest party by one seat. The SNP goes on to form a minority government with Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland.
4 May 1949: A fire at Grafton's department store in Argyle Street in Glasgow kills thirteen young women.
5 May 1646: Charles I surrenders to Scottish Covenanters besieging Newark on Trent. The Scots forces later take him to Newcastle and try to bargain with him for Scots advantage. The English Parliamentary army threatens to take the King from the Scots by force.
5 May 1938: King George VI officially opens the Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.
5 May 2011: In a remarkable victory the Scottish National Party wins an overall majority in elections to the Scottish Parliament. They win 69 out of the total of 129 seats, an increase of 23 on the number they won in 2007.
6 May 1625: The death of Sir George Bruce of Carnock, the early industrialist who developed a highly innovative system of coal mining at Culross in Fife.
6 May 1784: The birth in France of Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart, the illegitimate son of the legitimised daughter of Charles Edward Stewart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.
6 May 1870: The death of Sir James Young Simpson, the first man ever to be knighted for his services to medicine, who is principally remembered for introducing anaesthesia to childbirth.
6 May 1999: Elections are held for the Scottish Parliament and the 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament - MSPs - take their seats on 12 May 1999.
7 May 1876: The death of David Bryce, the leading Scottish architect in the Victorian era.
7 May 1890: The death in Kent of James Nasmyth, the inventor and engineer remembered mostly for his development of the steam hammer.
7 May 1925: Lord Leverhulme dies, leaving uncompleted his development work on the isles of Harris and Lewis.
7 May 2015: In a UK General Election all but three of the 59 Westminster parliamentary seats in Scotland are won by the Scottish National Party, while across the UK as a whole the Conservative Party gains a narrow overall majority.
8 May 1933: Highland Airways, established by Captain Ernest Edmund "Ted" Fresson, inaugurates a passenger service between Inverness, Wick and Kirkwall.
8 May 1945: V-E, or Victory in Europe day marks the end of the war in Europe.
9 May 1645: The Marquis of Montrose and his Royalists camp at Auldearn near Nairn, while en route to attack Inverness. The Covenanters, reinforced by troops withdrawn from England because of the threat from Montrose, gather at Inverness before marching overnight in an attempt to surprise Montrose at Auldearn. After a fierce fight the Royalists again win, killing 2,000 Covenanters for the loss of 200 of their own men.
9 May 1849: The birth in St Andrews of scholar and historian David Hay Fleming.
9 May 1860: The birth in Kirriemuir of novelist and dramatist J.M. Barrie, best known for inventing the character of Peter Pan.
10 May 1307: At the Battle of Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire, Robert the Bruce defeats forces loyal to the English.
10 May 1719: Royal Navy ships bombard Spanish troops holding Eilean Donan Castle and subsequently destroy the castle.
10 May 1810: The Rev Henry Duncan launches the world's first locally-based savings bank in Ruthwell, near Dumfries.
10 May 1846: The birth in Glasgow of Sir Thomas Lipton, who succeeded in establishing a chain of grocery stores across Great Britain; who gave his name to Lipton teas; and who repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) challenged for yachting's America's Cup.
10 May 1941: Deputy German Führer, Rudolph Hess parachutes into Scotland, apparently intending to meet the 14th Duke of Hamilton.
11 May 1559: John Knox preaches a sermon in Perth, starting a major Protestant uprising that spreads swiftly across central Scotland.
11 May 1685: The execution as Covenanters of the Wigtown Martyrs. William Johnston, John Milroy and George Walker, are hanged for their beliefs, and two women, the elderly Margaret McLachlan, and the teenage Margaret Wilson, are drowned for theirs.
11 May 1689: William II/III and Mary II jointly accept the crown of Scotland, though it is unclear whether they have first formally accepted the constitutional principles set by the Scottish Convention.
12 May 563: Saint Columba and twelve companions land on the island of Iona to establish a monastery.
12 May 1994: The death of the leader of the Labour Party, John Smith.
12 May 1999: Dr Winifred M Ewing MSP, as acting Presiding Officer, opens the first gathering in 292 years of the new Scottish Parliament with the words: "The Scottish Parliament which adjourned on the 25th of March in the year 1707 is hereby reconvened".
13 May 1568: Mary Queen of Scots' army is defeated by a much smaller force under the Regent, the Earl of Moray, at the Battle of Langside, now part of Glasgow.
13 May 1685: The execution of James Kirk near Dumfries for refusing to swear the oath is one of the last of the wave of deaths of the "Killing Time".
13 May 1995: Alison Hargreaves from Spean Bridge becomes the first woman to climb Mount Everest solo and without oxygen.
14 May 1660: Charles II is proclaimed King of England, Scotland and Ireland while still in Holland.
14 May 1752: Colin Campbell, the Red Fox, is killed in the Appin Murder at Ballachulish.
14 May 1754: Golf is formalised at St Andrews with the foundation of the St Andrews Society of Golfers.
14 May 1771: The birth in Wales of Robert Owen, the businessman and a social reformer credited with becoming one of the founders of socialism and of the cooperative movement, and best known for his association with New Lanark.
15 May 1567: Mary Queen of Scots marries the Earl of Bothwell in a Protestant wedding at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. They then flee from widespread popular dissent to Dunbar Castle.
15 May 1568: Mary Queen of Scots' flight takes her to Terregles Castle near Dumfries. She rejects supporters' advice to return to France and chooses instead to flee to England and seek the mercy of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, who still fears Mary might make a claim to the Crown of England.
15 May 1887: The birth in Orkney of Edwin Muir, a novelist and translator as well as one of Scotland's most important poets of the 1900s.
16 May 1823: The death in France of Grace Elliott, the renowned Scottish society beauty and courtesan who witnessed at first hand the French Revolution.
16 May 1933: Midland Scottish Air Ferries begins Islay's first scheduled passenger service.
17 May 1741: George Watson's Hospital, a charitable school, opens in Edinburgh with eleven pupils.
17 May 1810: The suicide in a Paisley canal of Robert Tannahill, the self-taught poet and musician widely known as the Weaver Poet.
17 May 1870: The death of David Octavius Hill, the artist who went on to help pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland.
18 May 1538: King James V marries Marie de Guise by proxy at Notre-Dame de Paris.
18 May 1843: In what becomes known as "The Disruption", 121 ministers and 73 elders walk out of the Church of Scotland General Assembly to form the Free Church of Scotland.
18 May 1921: The birth in Sussex of Joan Eardley, the important Glasgow-based artist who founded the "Catterline School" of artists.
19 May 1795: The premature death from from the effects of a dissolute lifestyle of James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist and author.
20 May 685: The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere, near Forfar. King Ecgfrith of Northumbria is decisively defeated by the Picts, paving the way for the development of a separate Scottish nation. The battle is later depicted on a cross slab at Aberlemno Kirk.
20 May 1685: The Earl of Argyll sails from Holland to Campbeltown with 300 men in an attempted uprising. It fails and he is executed.
20 May 1883: The death in Edinburgh of William Chambers, the publisher who became Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
21 May 1424: James I is crowned at Scone.
21 May 1650: The execution in Edinburgh of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, the influential Civil War military leader.
21 May 1872: The death in Bunessan on Mull of the Gaelic poet Mary Macdonald.
22 May 1242: The Church of St Michael of Linlithgow is reconsecrated by the Bishop of St Andrews.
22 May 1859: The birth in Edinburgh of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the highly successful author best known for creating Sherlock Holmes.
22 May 1915: 226 people are killed and 246 more are injured in a rail crash at Quintinshill, near Gretna Green.
23 May 1701: Captain William Kidd is hung at Wapping for murder and piracy.
23 May 1846: The death in Manchester of Ensign Charles Ewart, remembered for capturing the regimental eagle of the French 45th Regiment of the Line at the Battle of Waterloo.
23 May 1951: The death in Edinburgh of Christina Kay, the schoolteacher who became the model for the main character in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
24 May 1153: David I dies, and is succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm IV, aged 12.
24 May 1819: The birth in London of Princess Victoria of Kent, later to become Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Empress of India.
24 May 1852: The birth in London of Robert Cunninghame Graham, the socialist politician who became the first president of the Scottish National Party.
24 May 1908: The death of Old Tom Morris, the father of modern golf.
25 May 1660: King Charles II sails from Holland to Dover: the monarchy is restored.
25 May 1967: Celtic becomes the first British football club to win the European Cup. It fields a team of eleven Scots, all from west-central Scotland.
25 May 1971: Production begins at the Invergordon aluminium works near Dingwall.
26 May 1652: The last Royalist stronghold anywhere on the eastern side of Scotland, Dunnottar Castle near Stonehaven, surrenders after an eight month siege, though not before the Scottish crown jewels have been smuggled out to safety in Kinneff Old Church.
26 May 1819: The Honours of Scotland, the crown jewels, are put on display in Edinburgh Castle after being disinterred by Sir Walter Scott from the bowels of the castle where they had been placed in 1707.
26 May 1909: The birth near Motherwell of Sir Matt Busby, the football player and manager best remembered for his management of Manchester United.
27 May 1661: The Marquis of Argyll is executed in Edinburgh for his role during Charles II's 1650-1 reign. A number of other extreme Presbyterians are executed later in the year, though Neil Macleod, who had betrayed Montrose at Ardveck Castle, escapes. Charles II is also settling scores in England, where many of those responsible for his father's death are executed and Oliver Cromwell's body is exhumed and symbolically beheaded.
27 May 1849: The birth in Glasgow of Kate Cranston, who did much to promote the popularity of tea rooms, and was an important patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
28 May 1660: The birth in Germany of George I, the first monarch of the House of Hanover, who ruled as King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1 August 1714.
28 May 1811: The death of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, the lawyer and politician who became the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom.
28 May 1887: 73 miners are killed in a firedamp explosion at Udston Colliery near Hamilton. It is said to be Scotland's second worst coal mining disaster.
29 May 1546: Protestants break into St Andrews Castle, surprise Cardinal Beaton, murder him, and take over the castle. Their appeals to Henry VIII for support are ignored.
29 May 1630: The birth in London of the future King Charles II.
29 May 1679: Covenanters under Sir Robert Hamilton take Rutherglen before evading government troops.
29 May 1660: King Charles II becomes undisputed king of England following his restoration.
29 May 1687: King James VII/II establishes the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, an order of chivalry associated with Scotland.
30 May 1833: The death of Sir John Malcolm, a soldier and diplomat during the expansion of the British Empire.
30 May 1875: The birth near Banff of Isabel Gunn, who as Isabel Kerr became a doctor and missionary who pioneered the treatment of leprosy in India.
30 May 1889: The birth near Kirkliston of Isabel Hutchison, the pioneering arctic traveller and author.
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