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1 October 1788: Deacon William Brodie is hanged at Edinburgh's Tolbooth.
2 October 1263: King Håkon's fleet is damaged by a storm on the night of 30 September and this leads to the inconclusive skirmishes along the beach now known as the Battle of Largs. Håkon takes his battered fleet back to Orkney and later dies there. The full story can be read in The Norwegian Account of Haco's Expedition Against Scotland; 1263, first published in translation in 1782.
2 October 1854: The birth in Ballater of Sir Patrick Geddes, the noted biologist and botanist who went on to become a pioneer in the field of town planning.
2 October 1931: The death 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.
2 October 1946: The paddle steamer PS Waverley is launched at A. & J. Inglis's shipyard in Glasgow.
3 October 1357: The Treaty of Berwick is signed at Berwick-upon-Tweed, ending the Second War of Scottish Independence and releasing King David II from English captivity.
3 October 1594: The Battle of Glenlivet is fought between the victorious Catholic forces of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly and the Protestant forces of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll.
3 October 1706: The Scottish Parliament begins its debate on the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England.
3 October 1910: Captain Bertram Dickson is seriously injured in the world's first ever mid-air collision, which takes place over Milan.
4 October 1648: Oliver Cromwell meets the Covenanters in Edinburgh leaving New Model Army troops to protect the hardline Presbyterians when he leaves.
4 October 1694: The birth at Huntingtower Castle near Perth of Lord George Murray, a professional soldier and Jacobite who was one of Bonnie Prince Charlie's commanders during the ill-fated 1745 uprising.
4 October 1821: The death of John Rennie, one of the greatest engineers of his age who designed many bridges, canals, and docks.
5 October 1849: The Ardnamurchan Lighthouse is illuminated for the first time.
5 October 1885: The birth in Cumnock of Nan Hughes, socialist, local politician, and daughter of Keir Hardie, first leader of the Labour Party.
5 October 1922: The birth near Hamilton of Jock Stein, a football manager best remembered as manager of Celtic and of the Scotland national team.
6 October 1918: H.M.S. Otranto sinks in Machir Bay off north-western Islay after a collision in fog with another troop ship, HMS Kashmir. 431 lives are lost: 80 members of the British crew and 351 US servicemen.
7 October 1796: The death in Glasgow of Thomas Reid, a philosopher who played an important part in the Scottish Enlightenment.
7 October 1907: The birth in Helensburgh of the novelist Helen MacInnes.
8 October 1774 : The birth near Dumfries of Henry Duncan, the founder of the world's first savings bank.
9 October 1900: The death of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, the scholar, historian, archaeologist, romantic, mystic, and one of the greatest patrons of the arts in the Victorian era.
9 October 1900: The birth in Edinburgh of Alastair Sim, the actor best known for his character and comedy roles.
9 October 2004: The Queen opens the new Scottish Parliament Building.
10 October 1797: The birth in Edinburgh of Thomas Drummond, an engineer and the inventor of the Drummond Light who worked for the Ordnance Survey of Ireland before becoming a senior administrator in Ireland.
10 October 1802: The birth in Cromarty of the geologist and writer Hugh Miller.
10 October 1974: By the second General Election of the year, Harold Wilson's Labour Party has accepted the need for devolution. The Scottish Nationalists take 30% of the vote and 11 parliamentary seats.
10 October 1985: The death in London of Doris Reynolds, a geologist who spent much of her career in Scotland.
11 October 1760: The death in the Netherlands of Lord George Murray, a professional soldier and Jacobite who was one of Bonnie Prince Charlie's commanders during the ill-fated 1745 uprising.
11 October 1797: Ships of the Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, intercept a Dutch fleet off the village of Camperdown in the Netherlands and destroy it.
11 October 2000: Donald Dewar, Scotland's first First Minister, dies in office. He is succeeded as First Minister in the Scottish Executive by Henry McLeish.
12 October 1511: The warship Michael, often known as Great Michael, is launched for the navy of King James IV at Newhaven on the River Forth.
12 October 1866: The birth in Lossiemouth of Ramsay MacDonald, who would rise to become Britain's first Labour Prime Minister in 1924.
Friday, 13 October 1307: King Philip IV rounds up the Knights Templar in France as part of his campaign to gain control of the Order's vast wealth. In 1312 he persuades Pope Clement V to dissolve the Order, which in Scotland sees their assets, previously controlled from Temple, transferred to the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and administered from Torphichen Preceptory.
13 October 1713: The birth in Edinburgh of the renowned portrait painter, Allan Ramsay the Younger.
13 October 1862: 15 people are killed when two trains collided head on in a cutting a mile and a half north-east of Winchburgh.
14 October 1285: Alexander III remarries to Yolande de Dreux.
14 October 1318: The death in battle in Ireland of Edward Bruce, the younger brother of King Robert the Bruce and the High King of Ireland.
14 October 1859: The new water supply to Glasgow from Loch Katrine is opened.
14 October 1881: 189 fishermen, including 129 from Eyemouth are killed when 20 boats are lost in a storm.
14 October 1939: HMS Royal Oak is sunk by a German submarine in Scapa Flow with the loss of 834 lives.
15 October 1586: Mary Queen of Scots is tried for treason at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire.
15 October 1651: Charles II sails to France from Sussex after six weeks as a fugitive in England.
15 October 1686: The birth in Leadhills of the renowned poet Allan Ramsay the Elder.
15 October 1914 : The Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke is sunk by a German U-boat off Aberdeen with the loss of 524 members of her crew.
15 October 1965: The Ben Cruachan hydro-electric scheme near Oban opens.
16 October 1430: The birth of the future King James II.
16 October 1774: The early death in Edinburgh of Robert Fergusson, one of Scotland's greatest poets and the man who Robert Burns acknowledged as his inspiration.
16 October 1939: The first German aircraft to be shot down over Britain in WWII is attacked by RAF fighters over the River Forth.
16 October 1995: The Skye Bridge is opened to traffic.
17 October 1346: At the Battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, David II is captured by the English under Edward Balliol and subsequently taken to London.
17 October 1796: The birth near Lairg of Sir James Matheson, one of the founders of the Jardine Matheson trading empire and a man who in 1842 purchased the Isle of Lewis.
18 October 1541: The death of Margaret Tudor, mother of James V.
18 October 1801: Falling plasterwork during a service at the Laigh Kirk in Kilmarnock causes a stampede in which 29 people are killed.
19 October 1973: The boat belonging to internationally famous as country and western singer - and Shetland fisherman - Thomas Fraser runs aground and sinks.
19 October 1992: The Natural History Visitor Centre in Port Charlotte on Islay is opened by Magnus Magnusson.
20 October 1792: The birth in Glasgow of Field Marshal Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, a soldier remembered particularly for his service in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.
20 October 1976: The death of the author Elizabeth Jane Cameron, who, writing as Jane Duncan, was best best known for her "Reachfar" series of semi-autobiographical novels.
20 October 2012: A twinning ceremony takes place in Glenelg, complete with a live link to NASA, to celebrate the twinning of the village with Glenelg on Mars.
21 October 1971: A gas explosion at the Clarkston Toll shopping centre south of Glasgow kills 22 people.
21 October 1983: The building designed to house the Burrell Collection in Glasgow's Pollok Park is opened by The Queen.
22 October 1589: James VI sails to Norway to collect his bride, Anne of Denmark.
22 October 1871: The death in London of the eminent geologist Sir Roderick Murchison.
22 October 1877: An explosion in the Blantyre Colliery kills 207 miners in Scotland's worst mining disaster.
23 October 1295: A treaty is agreed between King John Balliol and King Philippe IV of France that marks the start of the long-standing "Auld Alliance".
23 October 1707: The first Parliament of Great Britain meets in London.
23 October 1822: The Caledonian Canal linking Inverness to Fort William opens to traffic.
23 October 1921: The death in Dublin of John Boyd Dunlop, who popularised the pneumatic inflatable rubber tyre and is chiefly remembered for founding the company that bears his name, Dunlop Tyres.
24 October 1378: The birth of David Stewart, 1st Duke of Rothesay. Also known as Prince David, he was the oldest son of King Robert III of Scotland and heir to the throne.
24 October 1762: The death in Kirkbean of John Paul senior, father of the US Naval hero John Paul Jones.
24 October 1896: St Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow, is rededicated after a major renovation.
25 October 1268: The death of John Balliol. He was a leading Anglo-Scottish noble, husband of Devorgilla, Lady of Galloway, father of one Scottish King, John Balliol, and the grandfather of another, Edward Balliol.
25 October 1514: The death in Edinburgh of Bishop William Elphinstone, who founded of the University of Aberdeen, and was a leading statesman in the courts of James III and James IV.
25 October 1714: The birth of James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, a lawyer, judge, and patron of the arts, who is primarily remembered as a pioneer of the science of comparative historical linguistics.
25 October 1760: King George II dies: he is succeeded by King George III.
26 October 1845: The death of collector and writer of songs and poems, Carolina Oliphant, Baroness Nairne.
26 October 1911: The birth on the island of Raasay of Sorley MacLean. He would become one of the most important Scottish poets of the 20th Century and is seen by many as the father of the renaissance of the Gaelic language.
27 October 1327: Queen Elizabeth de Burgh, the second wife of Robert the Bruce, dies at Cullen Castle, and her "interiores partes" are buried in Cullen Old Kirk. The remainder of her body is taken south for burial at Dunfermline Abbey.
27 October 1736: The birth near Kingussie of James Macpherson, the poet best known as the translator (or more likely the author) of the Ossian cycle of poems.
27 October 1907: A service of dedication is held at the Braes of Rannoch Church, whose minister was the Reverend A.E. Robertson, best known as an early Munro-bagger.
28 October 1562: Mary Queen of Scots and her half-brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, defeat George, the 4th Earl of Huntly at the Battle of Corrichie, near Aberdeen, to curtail his ambition and assauge Protestant concerns in Scotland. She goes on to sack Huntly Castle.
28 October 1794: The birth in West Lothian of Robert Liston, a pioneering and controversial surgeon who is widely considered to be the best of his era.
28 October 1854: The death in Dunkeld of Charles Edward Stuart, Count Roehenstart, the illegitimate son of the legitimised daughter of Charles Edward Stewart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.
28 October 1916: The birth in a workhouse in Inverness of the novelist, playwright and radio producer, Jessie Kesson.
29 October 1740: The birth in Edinburgh of James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist, traveller and author.
29 October 1879: A service of consecration is held at the newly completed St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh.
30 October 1772: The arrival in South Africa of Francis Masson, the gardener who became Kew Gardens' first plant hunter.
30 October 1921: The death in Australia of James Murdoch, the Stonehaven-born teacher and historian who spent much of his life in Japan and Australia.
31 October 1765: The Duke of Cumberland, known in the Highlands as "Butcher Cumberland" dies in London aged 44.
31 October 1745: Charles Edward Stuart moves south from Edinburgh despite views among his supporters that it would be better to retain Scotland and wait for a promised French invasion of England.
31 October 1860: The death in London of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, who achieved fame as one of the most daring and successful naval captains of the Napoleonic Wars, and later led the navies of Chile, Brazil and Greece in independence struggles.
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