Scottish History Timeline - Key Dates affecting Scotland's Population
- 1603 - Union of the Crowns
- 1638 - Covenanters rebel against Charles 1st
- 1692 - Massacre of Glencoe
- 1695 - The Bank of Scotland is created
- 1698 - 1200 colonists leave Leith for Darien
- 1707 - Act of the Union
- 1744 - 1st Golf Club founded in Edinburgh
- 1746 - Battle of Culloden
- 1747 - Kilts and Tartan banned
- 1762 - Beginning of the Highland Clearances
- 1782 - Tartan reinstated as traditional dress
- 1846 - The beginning of the Highland potato famine
- 1873 - Death of David Livingstone
- 1879 - Tay Bridge Disaster
- 1890 - Forth Railway Bridge opens
- 1904 - Decade of 600,000 Scots emigrating
- 1914 - Great War begins
- 1918 - WW1 ends
- 1920 - The Great Depression
- 1930 - St Kilda evacuated
- 1941 - Clydebank Blitz
- 1942 - US troops disembark from ships in Clyde preparing for war
- 1950 - Nationalists steal the Stone of Destiny
- 1964 - Forth Road Bridge opens
- 1999 - Creation of the Scottish Parliament
James V1 of Scotland became James 1 of England thus uniting the 2 Crowns after the death of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England who died childless.
The covenanters sculpted religion and politics in Scotland which promoted Presbyterianism as a 'church' run government popular with the people and not the Crown. An alliance was formed between the Scottish Covenanters and the English Parliament and caused a civil war with Charles 1.
The McDonalds of the Clan McDonald were slaughtered by the Clan Campbell after offering them hospitality because they did not swear allegiance to the new monarchs.
2nd oldest surviving bank in the UK and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to remain in existence.
1200 Scots left Leith for a new promised land at Darien in the US, this and subsequent ventures ended in disaster with few lasting the journey, the survivors dying with disease and attacks by the Spaniards. The few survivors returned home and the venture was abandoned at a huge cost to the Scottish Parliament ultimately leading to the merger with Westminster.
England ratifies the Treaty of the Union and the Parliament of Scotland is dissolved.
Leith Links was the venue for the 1st gold club formed from the 'Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers'.
The last Jacobite army is defeated.
Following Culloden, tartan and the kilt were banned except by the Army.
Scots in the Highlands and Islands were forced to leave their crofts and homes to make way for farming and agriculture. Many left Scotland for the Americas and other Colonies. Read more about the Highland Clearances.
When the laws were repealed in 1782 there was a resurgence of Scottish nationalism and efforts to restore the spirit and culture of the Highlands after a period of repression were encouraged by the newly formed Highland Societies in London (1778) and Edinburgh (1780)
The Highland potato famine caused over 1.7 million people to leave Scotland.
A Scottish Medical missionary and explorer in Africa.
The Tay Bridge disaster caused the deaths of 75 when a train and 6 carriages collapsed into the River Tay.
Major artery linking Fife with Edinburgh and opened by the 'Prince of Wales'.
Some 600,000 Scots emigrated over the decade to North America and other UK colonies worldwide.
Against a rising tide of Scottish socialism and trade unionism a large numbers of Scottish men volunteer to fight.
140,000 Scots were killed, no nation apart from Turkey, lost a higher percentage of it's population.
Period of economic downturn.
The remote island of St Kilda is evacuated with residents leaving for the mainland and the US and Australia.
Over 1,000 killed on the Clyde when German Luftwaffe bomb it's shipyards.
10,000 troops disembark from ships in the Clyde preparing for the war.
Nationalists steal the stone of destiny from Westminster, almost 800 years after Edward 1st took it from Scone.
The Queen has officially opened Europe's longest suspension bridge linking Edinburgh to Perth across the River Forth.
Opened by Her Majesty the Queen.