istoryworld
Events relating to scotland
Scottish poet Robert Burns publishes Tam o' Shanter, in which a drunken farmer has an alarming encounter with witches
Scottish painter Henry Raeburn depicts the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch
Charlotte Square in Edinburgh begins to be built to the design of Robert Adam
A steam tug designed by William Symington, the Charlotte Dundas, goes into service on the Forth and Clyde canal
A Scottish clergyman, Alexander Forsyth, invents the percussion cap to help in his pursuit of wildfowl
Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake brings tourists in unprecedented numbers to Scotland's Loch Katrine
Britain's first primary school is established by Robert Owen at New Lanark in Scotland
Scottish engineer John McAdam builds the first macadamized road, in the Bristol region of southwest England
Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe, a tale of love, tournaments and sieges at the time of the crusades
George IV wears a tartan kilt when visiting Edinburgh, and launches a new craze for Highland dress
Walter Scott begins to transform Abbotsford into a romantic house that he refers to as his 'conundrum castle'
Scottish engineer Thomas Telford completes two suspension bridges in Wales, at Conwy and over the Menai Strait
William Burke and William Hare murder 16 victims and sell their bodies to the Edinburgh Medical School for anatomical study
Landlords in Scotland begin to clear crofters from Highland estates so as to provide pasture for sheep
Scottish obstetrician James Simpson uses anaesthetic (ether, and later in the year choloroform) to ease difficulty in childbirth
Scottish physicist William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, proposes the 'absolute' scale of temperature
Scottish painter David Roberts completes publication of his 6-volume The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia
Scottish physicist William Thomson formulates the second law of thermodynamics, concerning the transfer of heat within a closed system
The hypodermic syringe with a plunger is simultaneously developed in France and in Scotland
Victoria and Albert complete their fairy-tale castle at Balmoral, adding greatly to the nation's romantic view of Scotland
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell presents to the Royal Society his discoveries in the field of electromagnetics, now known collectively as Maxwell's Equations
An entire train, full of passengers, falls into the river Tay in Scotland when a bridge collapses in a winter gale
The Crofters' Holdings Act provides security of tenure and other safeguards for Highland crofters in Scotland
The Home Rule campaign for Ireland prompts a Scottish Home Rule Association to fight in a related cause
A vast cantilever bridge, spanning a mile of water, carries the railway across the Firth of Forth in Scotland
