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29 October 1740: The birth in Edinburgh of James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist, traveller and author.
28 April 1742: The birth in Dalkeith of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, the lawyer and politician who became the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom.
February 1744: A French fleet intending to invade southern England is caught by the Royal Navy then dispersed by a storm. On board the failed invasion fleet is Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender".
5 July 1745: Charles Edwards Stuart sails from France for Scotland with two ships. The Elisabeth, carrying his military supplies and gold, is badly damaged in an encounter with a Royal Navy ship and has to turn back.
23 July 1745: Charles Edward Stuart lands on Eriskay in the Western Isles.
25 July 1745: Charles Edward Stuart lands at Loch nan Uamh on the mainland with just eight supporters, no supplies, and no funds.
19 August 1745: Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard at Glenfinnan.
26 August 1745: The birth in Edinburgh of Henry Mackenzie, a novelist and leading member of the Edinburgh literary scene in the decades either side of 1800.
4 September 1745: The Jacobite army takes Perth.
16 September 1745: The Jacobites take Edinburgh without a fight.
21 September 1745: At the Battle of Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh, the Jacobites defeat the assembled governmental forces under General Cope in a ten minute engagement.
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.
15 November 1745: Carlisle falls to the Jacobites after they have bypassed Government forces under Field Marshal George Wade.
4 December 1745: Charles Edward Stuart and the Jacobite army reaches Derby. In London, only 150 miles south, there is total panic and it is reported that George II is preparing to flee.
6 December 1745: In the absence of the promised French invasion of England and in the light of very limited support from English Jacobites, Charles withdraws from Derby.
20 December 1745: The Jacobite army, heading north after reaching Derby, retreats into Scotland.
8 January 1746: Stirling surrenders to the Jacobite forces.
17 January 1746: A large Jacobite army defeats government forces at the Battle of Falkirk Muir. Charles Edward Stuart, increasingly drunk since Derby, fails to take advantage. Amongst the casualties on the Government side is Sir Robert Munro.
1 February 1746: The Jacobites move north in the face of increasingly strong government forces under the Duke of Cumberland.
16 April 1746: The Jacobite and Government armies meet at the Battle of Culloden, east of Inverness. For a full account of the final defeat of the Jacobites read our feature page on the battle.
20 April 1746: Following his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie flees to Arisaig where he stays for a week.
21 April 1746: The City of Glasgow hosts formal celebrations to mark the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden, and awards the Duke of Cumberland the freedom of the city.
30 April 1746: Four days after Charles leaves Arisaig two French ships carrying supplies and funds arrive in an effort to help him.
27 June 1746: Flora MacDonald sails "over the sea to Skye" from Benbecula with a disguised Bonnie Prince Charlie.
20 September 1746: Bonnie Prince Charlie sails for France from Loch nan Uamh near Arisaig, very close to the spot at which he landed in July 1745. The site is today marked by the Prince's Cairn.
9 April 1747: Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, becomes the last person to be executed by beheading in Britain for his part in the 1745 Jacobite uprising.
6 July 1747: The birth at Arbigland of John Paul Jones, the man who went on to become the first US naval hero of the American Revolution, and in many eyes the father of the US Navy.
1 August 1747: The Act of Proscription prohibits the wearing of highland garb, in particular tartans and kilts, except within the army.
10 December 1747: The death of Duncan Forbes, Lord Culloden, an important figure in the legal establishment of Scotland for a number of decades and a staunch opponent of the Jacobites in two uprisings.
10 March 1748: The birth of Professor John Playfair, Professor of Mathematics and later Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.
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.
18 November 1749: The death in London of Sir William Keith, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and what is now Delaware.
5 September 1750: The birth in Edinburgh of Robert Fergusson, one of Scotland's greatest poets and the man who Robert Burns acknowledged as his inspiration.
27 June 1751: David Balfour and Alan Breck, fictional heroes of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "Kidnapped", begin their trek across Scotland.
29 June 1751: The birth near Kilmarnock of William Roxburgh, a doctor and botanist who did much to promote the science of botany in India.
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.
21 August 1754: The birth near Cumnock of William Murdoch, the engineer with wide ranging interests who, amongst other things, would devise a means of producing gas for public supply.
1755: A census by the Reverend Alexander Webster puts the population of Scotland at 1,265,380. England's population is five times larger.
1756: An Act of the Court of Session in Edinburgh establishes that tenants may easily be removed by the local sheriff. This is to have major implications in the Highlands in following years.
4 March 1756: The artist Sir Henry Raeburn is born in the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh.
21 September 1756: The birth in Ayr of John Loudon McAdam, who would make his fortune in the United States before returning to Scotland and developing the most important improvements in roadbuilding techniques since the Romans.
1 November 1756: The Wanlockhead Miners' Library, the second oldest subscription library in Scotland (and Europe) is established 'for our mutual improvement' with 32 members.
9 August 1757: The birth of Thomas Telford, the man whose civil engineering achievements would transform Scotland.
7 January 1758: The death in Edinburgh of the poet Allan Ramsay the Elder.
9 September 1758:The birth in Edinburgh of Alexander Nasmyth, the landscape and portrait painter who has often been called "father of Scottish landscape painting".
1759: An iron works is established at Carron near Falkirk, producing cannons called Carronades.
25 January 1759: The birth of Robert Burns.
22 September 1759: The birth near Dundee of William Playfair, the engineer and political economist remembered primarily for his innovations in the presentation of quantitative information by means of graphs and charts.
1760: The Highland Clearances gain momentum. The pressure on highlanders through increased rents and more direct means to leave the land results in 20,000 emigrating by 1773, many for Canada and other colonies.
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.
25 October 1760: King George II dies: he is succeeded by King George III.
23 December 1761: The death of Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, the government spy in the Jacobite camp known as "Pickle".
31 January 1762: The birth on the island of Ulva of Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB, who later becomes Governor of New South Wales and is often described as "The Father of Australia."
12 August 1762: The birth in London of George IV, who served as king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Hanover, from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830.
24 October 1762: The death in Kirkbean of John Paul senior, father of the US Naval hero John Paul Jones.
31 October 1765: The Duke of Cumberland, known in the Highlands as "Butcher Cumberland" dies in London aged 44.
17 November 1765: The birth in France of Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, 1st Duc de Taranto, who became a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Wars.
1 January 1766: James Francis Edward Stuart, also known as James VIII/III or "The Old Pretender", dies in exile in Rome.
16 August 1766: The birth near Dunning of Carolina Oliphant, Baroness Nairn, a collector and writer of songs and ballads whose work is considered by many to be second only to that of Robert Burns.
29 December 1766: The birth in Glasgow of Charles Macintosh, the chemist and inventor of waterproof fabric.
1767: Work begins on the building of Edinburgh New Town.
7 April 1767: the birth in Torphichen in West Lothian of Henry Bell, who would make his name by building the the paddle steamer PS Comet and, in 1812, using it to run Europe's first commercially viable passenger steamboat service on the River Clyde.
10 July 1767: The death of Alexander Monro, pioneer of medical education in Edinburgh.
1768-1771: The Encyclopedia Britannica is published in Edinburgh.
13 November 1768: The birth near Kincardine on Forth of Sir James Wylie, a doctor who rose to become the Russian imperial court surgeon and served three tsars.
1769: Fort George near Inverness, built at vast cost to ensure the continued suppression of the Highlands, is completed.
May 1769: Helen Gloag, later to be the Empress of Morocco, sets sail for America but en route is captured by Barbary pirates from Salé in Morocco.
14 November 1770: The explorer James Bruce reaches Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, becoming, perhaps, the first European to reach that location.
9 December 1770: The poet and novelist James Hogg is baptised in Ettrick in the Scottish Borders.
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 August 1771: The birth in Edinburgh of Sir Walter Scott, the world's first international literary superstar.
11 September 1771: The birth near Selkirk of Mungo Park, who made his name as an early explorer of the African continent.
17 September 1771: The death in Italy of Scottish author, Tobias Smollett.
30 October 1772: The arrival in South Africa of Francis Masson, the gardener who became Kew Gardens' first plant hunter.
18 August 1773: Samuel Johnson and James Boswell set out on their three month tour of the Highlands and the Inner Hebrides, of which both subsequently write detailed accounts.
15 September 1773: The emigrant ship "Hector" arrives in Pictou Harbour on Nova Scotia carrying 189 Highlanders, most loaded two months earlier in Ullapool.
3 June 1774: The birth in Paisley of Robert Tannahill, a silk weaver by trade, and a self-taught poet and musician who went on to become known as the Weaver Poet.
8 October 1774 : The birth near Dumfries of Henry Duncan, the founder of the world's first savings bank.
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.
4 November 1774: The birth in Renfrewshire of Robert Allan, a weaver who became more widely known for the songs he composed and the poetry he wrote.
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.
25 August 1776: The death of David Hume, generally regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English.
12 January 1777 : The death of Brigadier-General Hugh Mercer, the Scottish-born American revolutionary general.
23 September 1779: The Battle of Flamborough Head takes place off Yorkshire between ships of the American Continental Navy commanded by John Paul Jones and Royal Navy ships protecting a merchant convoy.
26 December 1780: The birth in Jedburgh of Mary Somerville, a writer with a deep understanding of many of the newly emerging fields in science, mathematics and astronomy, and the world's first "scientist".
11 December 1781: The birth in Jedburgh of Sir David Brewster, who would go on to become a renowned scientist and make a particular contribution in the field of optics.
2 February 1782: The birth in Arbroath of James Chalmers, the inventor of the adhesive postal stamp.
1 July 1782: The Act of Proscription is repealed and the kilt and wearing of tartans comes into more general use.
27 December 1782: The death in Edinburgh of Henry Home, Lord Kames, the philosopher, lawyer and judge who became a leading force in the Scottish Enlightenment.
1 January 1783: The constitution is drafted for the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, making it the oldest in Britain.
27 January 1783: The newspaper the Glasgow Herald is published for the first time.
25 January 1784: The death in Edinburgh of Alexander Webster, a writer and church minister who is best remembered for the country's first census.
24 February 1784: The birth near Lochmaben of William Jardine, the ship's surgeon who went on to become one of the founders of the Hong Kong based Jardine Matheson trading company.
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.
10 August 1784: The death in Dover of the renowned portrait painter, Allan Ramsay (the Younger).
13 August 1784: The birth in Edinburgh of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, 7th Baronet, of Fountainhall, a writer and a minor member of Scottish nobility.
13 December 1784: The death in London of Samuel Johnson, the English author, journalist and literary critic who travelled with James Boswell to the Highlands and Islands in 1773.
18 November 1785: The birth near Cupar of Sir David Wilkie, a Scottish artist who made his name for his works depicting historical and religious subjects, though he also painted portraits and a range of other subjects.
15 December 1785: George, Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, enters into an illegal marriage with Maria Fitzherbert.
31 July 1786: Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. This collection of verse contains many poems that will later be regarded as classics.
1786: The New Lanark Mills are the biggest cotton mills in the world, making cotton the most important industry in Scotland.
1 December 1787: Scotland's first lighthouse lights up at Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh. It is built by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson.
22 January 1788: The Romantic poet George Gordon Byron, later to become 6th Baron Byron, is born in London.
31 January 1788: The death in exile in Rome of Charles Edward Stuart, better remembered as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" or "The Young Pretender".
27 August 1788: The trial begins in Edinburgh of Deacon William Brodie, pillar of society and notorious criminal.
1 October 1788: Deacon William Brodie is hanged at Edinburgh's Tolbooth.
19 February 1789: The birth in Kelso of Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick, an eminent structural engineer who pioneered new designs for iron bridges and ships.
20 December 1789: The birth in Edinburgh of William Burn, the architect who pioneered the Scots Baronial style.
26 and 27 December 1789: William Symington operates a paddle steamer on the Forth and Clyde Canal.
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.
17 June 1790: The death in Canada of William Davidson, the lumber merchant, ship builder and politician.
17 July 1790: The death of Adam Smith, the hugely influential political economist and moral philosopher.
27 July 1790: The Forth and Clyde Canal is opened to use.
21 June 1791: The birth in Dumbarton of Robert Napier, the engineer often remembered as "The Father of Clyde Shipbuilding."
19 February 1792: The birth in Lerwick of Arthur Anderson, who went on to found the Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company: which has since become P&O.
3 March 1792: The death in London of Robert Adam, the most famous of the Adam family of architects.
4 June 1792: The King's Birthday riots, apparently prompted by agitators, begin in Edinburgh. They last three days and nights and lead to the death of at least one person.
18 July 1792: The death of John Paul Jones, father of the US Navy.
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 July 1793: Sir Alexander Mackenzie completes the first recorded crossing of North America north of Mexico to reach an inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Canada.
4 August 1792: The birth in Annan of Edward Irving. He became a successful preacher who in 1833 was accused of heresy for announcing the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and went on to form his own sect.
27 April 1794: The death of James Bruce, who explored large parts of North Africa and Ethiopia and reached the source of the Blue Nile.
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.
27 December 1794: The birth in Edinburgh of Alexander Gordon Laing, the first European to reach Timbuktu from the north.
17 January 1795: Duddingston Curling Society is established, becoming one of the oldest curling clubs in existence.
19 May 1795: The premature death from from the effects of a dissolute lifestyle of James Boswell, the lawyer, diarist and author.
4 December 1795: The birth in Ecclefechan of Thomas Carlyle, the hugely influential essayist, satirist, and historian.
13 January 1796: The death of John Anderson, founder the Anderson Institute, the forerunner of the University of Strathclyde.
17 February 1796: The death of James Macpherson, the poet best known as the translator (or more likely the author) of the Ossian cycle of poems.
4 July 1796: Robert Burns takes up residence at the Brow Inn to seek a cure for what we now know was rhumatic fever. The "cure" comprises drinking the waters of the Brow Well and bathing in the Solway Firth.
21 July 1796: The death in Dumfries of Robert Burns, regarded as Scotland's national poet and an icon who has loomed large in Scottish culture and consciousness ever since.
7 October 1796: The death in Glasgow of Thomas Reid, a philosopher who played an important part in the Scottish Enlightenment.
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.
17 December 1796: The birth at Kinghorn in Fife of Christina Robertson, a portrait painter who became the painter in residence at the Russian Court in St Petersburg.
26 March 1797: The death in Edinburgh of James Hutton, considered by many to be the father of modern geology.
29 August 1797: A peaceful demonstration in Tranent against conscription under the Militia Act is broken up by troops in what becomes known as the "Battle of Tranent", leading to twelve deaths.
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.
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.
3 December 1797: The birth in Hawick of Sir Andrew Smith, the doctor and naturalist best known for his study of the zoology of South Africa.
22 December 1797: Explorer Mungo Park returned to Scotland from west Africa, long after he had been given up for dead.
17 December 1798: A skirmish takes place at Collieston in Aberdeenshire between smugglers and excisemen, in which the most notorious of the smugglers, Phillip Kennedy, is killed.
25 June 1799: The birth at Scone near Perth of David Douglas, the botanist who gave his name to the Douglas Fir.
4 July 1799: The death of Sir John Anstruther, 2nd Baronet, a Scottish politician and industrialist who served as Member of Parliament for Anstruther Burghs on three occasions and is remembered for his harbour improvements at Pittenweem and the development of coal mining and salt extraction at St Monans.
30 September 1799: The marriage of Robert Owen and Caroline Dale, the daughter of David Dale, the man who founded New Lanark.
6 December 1799: The death of Joseph Black, the eminent Scottish physicist, chemist and medical doctor.
Click for Timeline: 1800 to 1850
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