Chronology

This is the musician-in-the-street's story of Edinburgh; history seen as musical raw material. It lists two kinds of event. One is those that were visible and important to the general public; the sort of happenings that might have given rise to music, even though there might not be any about them in this book. This includes both lasting social and geographic changes and also dramatic events long since forgotten. In part this is intended to help people continuing this work; even given the date of a song in a broadside or manuscript, it is not always obvious what it's about. The other is events relating to music: publications or performances which most musicians would have been aware of then or which turned out to be important later.

My priorities are nearer to those of a tabloid editor than a conventional historian: events are listed here because they were significant to whole classes of the people of Edinburgh at the time. The births of the subsequently-famous, artistic creations, scientific discoveries, or quietly passed legislation rarely mattered to more than a handful of people at the time they happened. I have included a few events occurring outside the city, when they have had enough public impact to outweigh local news.

79

Agricola invades the Lothians

84

Battle of Mons Graupius

140

Campaign of Lollius Urbicus

142

Romans build a fort in Cramond

Antonine Wall built

160s

Romans leave Scotland

202

Cramond base used against the Picts

211

Romans abandon Cramond

400

St Triduana puts her own eyes out

407

Romans leave

452

Saxons capture Castle fron the Picts

500

St Monena's chapel, Castle Rock

550

Plague

600

Gododdin lose Battle of Catraeth

638

Angles capture Edinburgh

663

Synod of Whitby

664

Plague

685

Picts win Battle of Dunnichen

700

Adomnan's monastery, Inchkeith

960

Scots capture Edinburgh

1004

Lothians ceded to Malcolm II

1058

Malcolm III (Canmore) crowned

1072

Norman invasion

Marriage of Malcolm and Margaret

1073

Margaret's Chapel built

1093

Death of Malcolm III at Alnwick

Margaret dies in Edinburgh Castle

Castle besieged by Donald Bane

1107

King Edgar dies in the Castle

Coronation of Alexander I

1123

Inchcolm Abbey founded

1124

Coronation of David I

1126

St Giles Cathedral rebuilding starts

1128

David I meets the stag

1130

Leith Vaults first used

1133

Solar eclipse

1138

Battle of Northallerton

1140

Newbattle Abbey founded

1153

Malcolm IV (the Maiden) crowned

1154

Famine

1164

Soutra Hospital founded

1165

William I (the Lion) crowned

1174

Treaty of Falaise

Castle given as ransom to English

1175

First city gates

1185

Solar eclipse

1200

Monks begin brewing at Holyrood

Bishop of Caithness visits Restalrig

1212

Craigmillar Castle built

1214

William the Lion dies

Alexander II crowned

1216

English raid into Lothian

1217

Scotland under Papal interdict

1236

Black Friars monastery founded

1239

Provincial Synod held in Edinburgh

1243

Cathedral dedicated to St Giles

1249

Alexander II dies

Alexander III crowned

1251

Canonization of St Margaret

1256

Floods, famine

1263

Battle of Largs

1264

Comet

1286

Death of Alexander III at Kinghorn

1290

Death of the Maid of Norway

1291

English take Edinburgh Castle

1292

John Balliol crowned as King

1296

Edward I wins Battle of Dunbar

Edward massacres Castle garrison

Edward steals Scottish crown

1297

War of Independence begins

Wallace wins Battle of Stirling

Wallace demolishes the Castle

1298

Wallace loses Battle of Falkirk

1303

Battle of Roslin

1304

Roslin Castle tower built

1309

Trial of the Templars, Holyrood

1310

Edward II invades the Borders

1312

Templars suppressed

1313

Earl of Moray captures the Castle

Castle demolished again

1314

Battle of Bannockburn

Scots recapture the Castle

Castle demolished

1319

English invasion

1320

Sir John Herring burns his daughter

1322

City abandoned before invasion

Edward II invades

Holyrood Abbey sacked by English

1327

Skirmishes with England

1329

Bruce grants Edinburgh a charter

Bruce dies, David II crowned

1330

Queensferry Carmelite Priory

1332

Edward Balliol defeats the Scots at Dupplin Moor

Earl of Moray dies in Musselburgh

1333

Battle of Halidon Hill; Scots lose

Balliol's parliament meets, Holyrood

Solar eclipse

1334

Lothians pillaged by the English

David II flees into exile

1336

Scots win Battle of the Burgh Muir

1337

Famine

Edward III rebuilds the Castle

1338

Scots win Battle of Otterburn

1341

Douglases recapture the Castle

David II returns from France

1346

David II captured by the English at Neville's Cross

1349

Black Death

1352

Butter-Tron weigh-house built

1356

"Burnt Candlemas" English invasion of Lothian

1357

David II returns from captivity

1360

King's mistress murdered

1362

Plague

1365

Peace treaty with England

1367

David's Tower begun at the Castle

1369

Royal divorce

1371

David II dies in the Castle

Robert II crowned

1379

Plague

1383

City emptied and evacuated

Earl of Lancaster invades

1385

2000 French soldiers arrive

Richard II burns the whole city

1390

Robert II dies

Coronation of Robert III

1392

Plague

1398

Logans build Easter Road

1400

Henry IV besieges the Castle

Castle first fitted with cannon

1402

Comet

Plague

Battle of Homildon Hill

1406

Robert III dies

English capture James I

Duke Albany becomes Governor of Scotland

1411

Lowlanders win Battle of Harlaw

1416

Earl Douglas seizes the Castle

Duke Murdoch becomes Governor of Scotland

1418

Castle restored

1424

Ransomed King James I arrives

1425

Murdoch and his family executed at Stirling

Lombard ship wrecked at Granton

1428

King's Wark built in Leith

1429

Pub closing hours fixed at 9pm

Lord of the Isles surrenders

1430

James II born at Holyrood

1431

Plague

1432

Total solar eclipse

1437

James I assassinated in Perth

King's assassins publicly tortured

James II crowned at Holyrood

1439

Plague

1440

Black Dinner of the Douglases

1445

Douglases besiege the Castle

1446

Roslin Chapel begun

1449

James II marries Mary of Gueldres at Holyrood

Cordwainers incorporated

Wandering minstrels banned

Famine

1450

King's Wall begun

1451

Skinners build an altar in St Giles to St Christopher

Holyrood Ordinale service book

1452

Famine

1454

Cathedral given St Giles's armbone

1455

Final defeat of the Douglases

Plague

"Mons Meg" cast

1456

Greenside tournaments start

Comet

1457

Football outlawed

Sumptuary laws imposed

1460

James II buried at Holyrood

James III crowned

1461

Henry VI of England takes refuge

1462

Trinity Church & Hospital built

1463

Mary of Gueldres buried

1464

Henry VI leaves

1466

Figgate coal pit sunk at Portobello

The Boyds kidnap James III

1468

Comet

1469

James III marries at Holyrood

1473

Comet

1474

Skinners incorporated

1475

Masons' guild (Mary's Chapel)

Wrights and Masons build an aisle and altar to John the Baptist

Weavers incorporated

Plague

1477

Market times and places fixed by law

1478

Famine

1479

Paul's Work built

Duke of Albany arrested

Albany escapes from Edinburgh Castle

1480

Killing of the Earl of Mar

War with England

Debased "Black Money" circulated

James III held prisoner in the Castle

1481

Leith attacked by the English

1482

James III's favourites killed at Lauder

Albany returns to Scotland

James III freed

English army bribed to leave

Trades awarded the Blue Blanket

1483

Hammermen incorporated

1484

Albany's last raid

1485

Famine

1486

Queen Margaret dies

1488

Castle prepared for a siege

James III deposed and assassinated

1489

Andrew Wood defeats English pirates in the Forth

1490

Fleshers incorporated

1493

Seton Church built

1495

Perkin Warbeck welcomed to Scotland

1497

Syphilis arrives in Scotland

1498

Plague

1499

Stray dogs and pigs killed

Siamese twins presented at court

1500

Tailors incorporated

Waulkers incorporated

1501

Holyrood Palace built

1503

Dovecots given legal status

James IV meets Margaret at Dalkeith

Royal wedding ceremonies

1504

Queen Margaret crowned

1505

Surgeons and barbers incorporated

1506

Gypsies arrive in Scotland

1507

Tournament of the Wild Knight and the Black Lady

Great Michael begun, Newhaven

Sword of state given to James IV by the Pope

1508

Mass tree felling on Borough Muir

Boom in timber house extensions

First printing press

1510

Scorpions found in Craigmillar

1512

Gavin Douglas: Aeneid in Scots

French ambassador's naval gun salute causes panic in Leith

1513

Plague

Battle of Flodden

1514

Plague

James V held prisoner at Craigmillar

1515

Duke of Albany becomes Regent

Huntly-Moray street battle

1516

Homes executed for treason

1517

Sciennes convent founded

1520

Plague

Cleanse-the-Causey street battle

1522

Bakers' guild incorporated

1523

Huge French army in the Lothians

1524

Astrologers predict a global deluge

1525

Albany leaves for France

Douglases capture King and Castle

Castle tower shattered by lightning

Battle of Pavia

1527

Siege of Tantallon Castle

1528

Douglases try to assassinate James V

Patrick Hamilton burnt, St Andrews

1529

Holyrood Palace remodelled

Hanging of Johnny Armstrong

1530

Plague

Execution of Katharine Heriot

First cannon manufacture

Bonnet-makers incorporated

1532

High Street paved

Court of Session set up

1535

Famine

College of Justice set up

1537

Death of Queen Madeleine

1538

Execution of the Master of Forbes

Torture & burning of Jane Douglas

Coal pits opened at Duddingston

1539

City council runs out of funds

Five men burnt for heresy

1540

Cowgate cornmarket set up

City wall extended to Leith Wynd

Lyndsay: Satire of the Thrie Estaits

1541

Magdalene Chapel begun

Severe winter (to 1542)

Assassination attempt on the King

Start of ten-year famine

1542

First witch burning

Death of James V

1543

Regency crisis

English Bible adopted

Deacons' armed attack on the council

1544

Henry VIII's invasion

1546

Martyr George Wishart executed, St Andrews

Cardinal Beaton killed, St Andrews

1547

Battle of Pinkie; Leith burned

1548

Queen Mary taken to France

English fortify Inchkeith

1549

Mary of Guise captures Inchkeith

1553

High St cleared of pigs & dunghills

Compulsory street lighting

1555

John Knox returns to Scotland

Famine

1556

Famine

James VI born, Edinburgh Castle

1557

Lords of the Congregation formed

1558

St Giles's statue thrown in Nor Loch

Queen Mary marries the Dauphin of France

Burning of Walter Myln

Knox: First Blast of the Trumpet

1559

Plague and famine

Reformation starts

Mobs pillage churches & monasteries

1560

Craft riots

Siege of Leith

Confession of Faith adopted

Death of Mary of Guise

1561

Craft riots

Mary Queen of Scots arrives at Leith

Tolbooth built

1562

Flu epidemic

1563

Catholic priest dies at the pillory

Adultery made a capital offence

Witchcraft made a crime

1564

Bombardment of Inchkeith

First music printed: Lekprevik's Book of Common Order

Priest Sir James Cravet pilloried

Courts move to St Giles

The "Maiden" constructed

1565

Good and Godly Ballads published

Chaplain of St Giles pelted with eggs

Mary marries Darnley

1566

Murder of Riccio

Birth of James VI

1567

Plague

Darnley killed

Edinburgh seizes Leith by force

Mary Queen of Scots deposed

Last St Giles procession

Street fight between the lairds of Wemyss and Airthe and their men

Fornication Act

Church of Scotland established

Large-scale counterfeiting

1568

Food shortages and plague

Queen escapes from Loch Leven

Queen loses Battle of Langside

Bannatyne Manuscript compiled

Canongate pubs forced to shut Sunday mornings

1569

Food shortages and plague

Kirk has Holyrood Abbey wrecked

1570

Siege of the Castle

Earl of Moray killed, Linlithgow

Two men burnt for sodomy

1571

Netherbow rebuilt

Morton v. Huntly street battle

Battle of Lussie Law, Craigmillar

Civil war

Three-year famine begins

1572

Earl of Morton becomes Regent

Coinage debased

Massacre of St Bartholomew in France

Knox dies

1573

City bombarded by Castle

Siege ends; Castle taken

1574

Plague

1578

Melville: Second Book of Discipline

1575

Drought

1579

James VI arrives

Leith ship Jonas wrecked at Granton

First Poor Law

First Bibles printed in Scotland

1580

Baltic plague ship quarantined

Edinburgh Sang Schule: Art of Music

Schoolboys' riot

1581

Execution of Regent Morton

Goldsmiths incorporated

1582

Triumphant return of expelled preacher John Durie

Drought

Ruthven raid

1583

University set up

Non-virgin brides lose citizenship

Ruthvens lose power

1584

Plague

Earl of Gowrie killed

Somerville brothers gun accident

1585

Fire

Plague

Three-year famine begins

First town clock at St Giles

1587

Execution of Mary

Justiciary Court settles in Edinburgh

Schoolboys' riot

Plague

1589

James VI marries Anne of Denmark

1590

Russell's paper mill, Dalry

1591

Trial of North Berwick witches

City wall heavily reinforced

John Dickson broken on the wheel

1592

Murder of the Earl of Moray, Linlithgow

North Berwick witch conspiracy

Council bans golf on Sundays

1594

Battle of Niddrie Green

Sunday trading banned

1595

Five-week snowstorm

Famine

Manhunt for a kidnapper and rapist

Fatal siege at Royal High School

1596

Riot against King James VI

James threatens to demolish the city

Storms, 66 ships sunk at Leith

1597

James VI: Demonology

Laird of Edmonstone kills Wauchope of Niddrie

1598

Famine

Brewing monopoly awarded

Eclipse

Lodge of St Mary's Chapel set up

Tightrope walker performs; Kirk objects

1599

James VI: Basilicon Doron

1600

Gowrie Conspiracy

1601

Execution of Thomas Armstrong and Adam Scott

1602

Plague

1603

Treason trial of Mowbray's corpse

Hanging of MacGregor of Roro

Union of the Crowns

James VI & I leaves for London

1604

Plague

1605

Border reivers wiped out by police action

Johnnie Jack burnt for bestiality

1606

Episcopacy restored

Miners made serfs

1607

Town Waits set up

Priest William Murdoch banished

Plague

Forth partly freezes over

1608

Series of riots

Curfew imposed

Witches burnt alive at Broughton

1609

Gypsy race sentenced to death

Logan's skeleton tried for treason

Violent windstorm

1610

First Edinburgh-Leith coach service

Execution of 8 pirates in Leith

Banishment of Andrew Crichton

1611

King James Bible first published

Andrew Hart: Psalms of David

Fa gypsy family hanged

1612

Death of Prince Henry

1614

Bitterly cold winter

1615

Snowstorm paralyzes Scotland

1617

James VI revisits Edinburgh

Orlando Gibbons made a freeman

Colliers and salters made serfs

Pub closing hours set at 10pm

Market Cross rebuilt

1618

Thomas Rois's hands cut off

Five Articles of Perth

Ben Jonson visits

1620

Bankrupt Earl of Crawford dies in Edinburgh Castle

1621

Greyfriars Kirk opened

Year of fuel shortage

Nova Scotia founded

Fire

1622

Dutch vs Spanish sea battle off Leith

1623

Catastrophic famine

1624

Severe frost

Plague

Suicide of the Earl of Lothian

1625

James VI dies

Storm, ships sunk at Leith

Crops ruined by rain

Charles I crowned in England

Castle Hill moved to Nova Scotia

Skene Manuscript compiled

1627

Heavy summer rain

1628

Drowning of Sinclair and his sisters

1630

Cousland witches tried in Dalkeith

Piper of Dalkeith charged with witchcraft

1632

First piped water from Comiston

Protests over courts held in St Giles

1633

Charles I visits Scotland

King's ship sinks in the Forth

Wind blows back the tide at Leith

Trial of Lord Balmerino

Hepburn's Regiment raised

1634

Stormy winter to 1635

1635

Invention of Anderson's Pills

1636

Execution of "Gilderoy"

Tron Kirk begun"

Leith made a Burgh of Barony

Queensferry made a Royal Burgh

1637

St Giles "Jenny Geddes" riot

1638

National Covenant signed

1639

Napier's predicted date for the Second Coming

First Bishops' War

General Leslie's forces in Leith

1640

Tolbooth becomes a jail

Duel of Somerville and Crawford

Second Bishops' War

Castle besieged; city bombarded

Fears of an English invasion

1642

Parliament House opened

1643

Solemn League and Covenant

1644

Montrose defeats Covenanters

1645

Plague

Mary King's Close walled up

Fire

Battle of Philiphaugh

1646

Parish schools founded

1647

Tron Kirk finished

Presbyterians in power in England

1648

Whigamores' Raid

Cromwell's first visit

1649

Civil war

Charles I executed

Plague

Witch hunt

1650

Montrose executed

Charles II in Leith

Ghostly army heard on the Castle

Cromwell and Monck capture Edinburgh

Holyrood Palace burnt

Battle of Dunbar

1651

Near-schism in the Kirk

Battle of Inverkeithing

First newspaper, Mercurius Scoticus

1652

Dutch fleet in the Forth

Total solar eclipse in Scotland

Hot summer and early harvest

Garrison mutiny, Leith Citadel

Hermaphrodite burnt for bestiality

1653

Lilburne takes over at Dalkeith

1654

Monck returns to Dalkeith

Fire

Union with England

Eclipse

1655

Gale, ships sunk

First Quaker meeting

1656

Seven witches executed, Castle Hill

1657

Proclamation of the Second Protectorate

1658

Death of Cromwell

1659

Floods destroy Water of Leith mills

Five witches burnt on Castle Hill

Penny-a-pint tax put on ale

1660

Leith Races begin

Restoration of Charles II

Duty imposed on whisky

1661

Execution of James Guthrie

Execution of the Earl of Argyle

Nationwide witch hunt

Five witches burnt in Musselburgh

1662

First Scottish glass factory, Leith

Episcopacy reintroduced

Marriage of Duchess of Buccleuch

Man executed for bestiality

1663

Lauderdale takes control of Scotland

Johnston of Wariston hanged

Annuity Tax introduced

1664

Riots against duty on cloth

Comet

1666

Battle of Rullion Green

Mass executions of Covenanters

1667

Drought

Sedan chair service starts

1668

Attempt to kill Archbishop Sharp

Storm, many ships sunk

1669

First Indulgence

1670

Thomas & Jean Weir burnt for incest

Physic Gardens planted

1672

Second Indulgence

Riots depose the Lord Provost

High Court of Justiciary set up

Workhouses established

1674

Fire

"Thirteen Drifty Days" of snow

Execution of Agnes Johnson

1675

Day of intense cold

First Physic Garden set up

1676

Piped water supply from Comiston

1677

Fire

First coffee houses open

Lodge Canongate Kilwinning set up

1678

Regular coach service to Glasgow

Mitchell executed for attack on Sharp

Witch craze

1679

Battle of Bothwell Brig

Sharp assassinated

Christian Nimmo kills Lord Forrester

Greyfriars concentration camp

1680

Duke of York arrives in Scotland

Cargill escapes arrest at Queensferry

1681

Sweet Singers go to the Pentlands

Severe windstorms

Mob burns Provost Dick's house

Bow Foot Well, West Bow

Execution of Cargill

Test Act

Earl of Argyll condemned; escapes

Heriot's boys sentence a dog to death

Stair: Institutions of the Law of Scotland

1682

Lauderdale dies

City hangman hanged for murder

Riot against pressganging

1683

John McQueen's transvestism case

1684

Last convicted witch dies in prison

Plays reintroduced to the city

The "Killing Time"

1685

Execution of the Earl of Argyll

Execution of Duke of Monmouth

Two Covenanter women hanged

Fiddler stabbed to death

Charles II dies, James VII crowned

Statue of Charles II erected

First Quaker meetings

1687

Catholic chapel built at Holyrood

1688

Last execution of a Covenanter

Hanoverian Revolution

Execution of Philip Stansfield

Mob & Town Guard sack Holyrood

Mob sacks Roslin

1689

Jacobite counter-rebellion

Edinburgh Regiment formed

Battle of Killiecrankie

Chiesly shoots Lockhart of Carnwath

1690

Edinburgh Gazette newspaper starts

Presbyterian church established

Canongate Kirk built

1692

Massacre of Glencoe

1693

Twopenny ale duty

Treason trial of Charles Fraser

Beck's first public concert

1694

Merchant Maiden Hospital

1695

Bank of Scotland founded

Teacher banished for killing a pupil

Women forbidden to work in pubs

1696

Aitkenhead hanged for blasphemy

Canongate fire; school destroyed

Education Act

1698

Cold spring

Famine

Woman said to have borne a dragon

Darien scheme begun; 4000 emigrate

1699

Eclipse

1700

Fire, Parliament Square to Cowgate

Riot frees prisoners from jail

Darien scheme collapses

1701

Fire, north side of Lawnmarket

Habeas Corpus Act

Playford: Original Scotch-Tunes

James Thomson's manuscript

1702

Powder magazine explodes in Leith

Man executed for bestiality

Execution of Jannet Riddle for infanticide

Death of King William

Queen Anne crowned

1703

First fire brigade

Wine Act

1704

Trades Maiden Hospital

Catholic symbols burnt at the Cross

Water supply from Liberton

Bank of Scotland runs out of money

1705

Hanging of Captain Green

1706

Watson's Choice Collection of poems

1707

Treaty of Union

Fire

Severe frost

Seaton gelds himself

1708

Death of Prince George

Habeas Corpus suspended

Admiral Fourbin's navy in the Forth

Penicuik paper mill established

1709

Famine

1710

Margaret Sinkler's manuscript

Campbell Argyle brewery, Cowgate

First dancing assembly, West Bow

Last beheading by the Maiden

1712

Coach service to London

Patronage Act

Allan Ramsay's Easy Club set up

1713

Malt tax extended to Scotland

1714

Queen Anne dies, George I crowned

1715

Eclipse

Earl of Mar's Rising

Jacobites occupy Leith

Attack on the Castle

First circus performance

1716

Leith customshouse looted by a mob

"Tragedy of Steele's Close" shooting

William Ainslie gibbeted for treason

1717

Thunderstorm, deaths by lightning

Gabriel's Road child murders

1718

Evening Courant starts

1719

Man executed for bestiality

Second Jacobite Rebellion

1720

John Law given freedom of the city

South Sea Bubble

French economic crash

Graving dock built at Leith

Caledonian Mercury starts

Pirate John Clark hanged at Leith

1721

Execution of Nicol Muschet

Pirate Richard Luntly hanged at Leith

1722

Burgh Loch drainage starts

Gale damages crops

Cockenzie-Tranent rail waggonway

Provost whipped for adultery

Ramsay: Tea Table Miscellany

1723

Drought

New Assembly starts

Soc. for Improvement of Agriculture

1724

Paterson excavates Gilmerton Cave

Hanging of Maggie Dickson

Galloway peasant uprising

Partial eclipse

1725

Glasgow anti-malt-tax insurrection

Edinburgh brewers' boycott

Fire

German flute popularized

University starts public dissections

Ramsay starts first lending library

Ramsay: The Gentle Shepherd

Thomson: Orpheus Caledonius

1726

First midwifery classes at University

1727

Circuses banned; ban lifted again

Tailors' Hall first used as a theatre

Royal Bank of Scotland founded

Margaret Nisbet hanged for forgery

Death of George I

George II crowned

1728

Musical Society founded

1729

Bonnington linen mill set up

Picardy weavers start production

First Royal Infirmary

Gay's Polly premiered

1730

Adam Craig's collection

Colonel Charteris convicted of rape

1731

Dysentery epidemic

1732

Alexander Munro's collection, Paris

Great snowfall & intense cold in May

Death of Earl of Mar

Lady Grange kidnapped and exiled

Funeral of Colonel Charteris

Hurricane and lightning storm

Flu epidemic

1733

Gay's Beggar's Opera performed

Rope walkers perform off the Castle

Secession Church started

1734

Lodge Holyrood House set up

Dysentery epidemic

1735

Measles epidemic

Relapsing fever epidemic

Burgess Golf Club formed

1736

Porteous Riot

Grand Lodge of Scotland formed

Ramsay's theatre opens and closes

Intense frost

1737

Eclipse

1738

First coachbuilding factory

1739

Windy Saturday gale

War with Spain declared, Leith Pier

1740

Hurricane damages St Giles

Snowstorm in May

Famine

Bell's Mills meal riot

War of the Austrian Succession starts

Macfarlan manuscript begun

Smallpox epidemic

Beggar licencing introduced

1741

George Watson's School founded

Whooping cough epidemic

Second Royal Infirmary

1742

McGibbon's first collection

Comet

Riot against bodysnatchers

1743

Provost stages first civic banquet

Black Watch mutiny, London

Bristo Street Workhouse opens

Flu epidemic

Robert Blair: The Grave

1744

Edinburgh Skating Club formed

Storm unroofs Tron Church

Three-day thunderstorm and floods

1745

Jacobites occupy Edinburgh

Secession church splits

1746

Duke of Cumberland arrives

Oswald: Caledonian Pocket Companion

British Linen Company bank

New theatre in the Canongate

Disarming Act

1747

Drought

Heritable Jurisdiction Act

Window Tax imposed

Robert Drummond pilloried for libel

Burgher/Anti-Burgher split in Secession Church

1748

Hot summer

Eclipse

Journeymen tailors' strike

1749

Scots regiments re-adopt the fife

Sulphuric acid factory, Prestonpans

Edinburgh-Glasgow stagecoach

1750

Younger's Brewery, Leith

Harpsichord popularized

1751

Tenement fall, mass demolition

Turnpike Act

John Wesley visits

1752

Macgregor of Bohaldie escapes

New calendar; 11 days go missing

Irregular marriages banned

1753

Large snowstorm

New well opened at Calton

1754

High Commissioner's levees

David Hume forced to quit as Advocates' Librarian

1756

Seven Year War starts

Famine

Riots against army impressment

Mercat Cross demolished

John Home's Douglas premiered

Bell's Wynd assembly room opens

1757

Bremner's first collection

Hume: Natural History of Religion

1758

Holyrood Abbey reroofed

Flu epidemic

Brilliant meteor

Bremner: Instructions for the Guitar

1759

Benjamin Franklin visits Edinburgh

Camel and dromedary exhibited

Smallpox epidemic

Bremner: Free Masons Songs

1760

Footmen's riot in the theatre

Braid Burn flood

George II dies

George III crowned

1761

Canonmills bridge built

Second Secession: Relief Church splits off

1762

Macpherson's Ossian published

Smallpox epidemic

Patronage Case starts

Start of the Douglas Cause

Neil Stewart starts publishing

Saint Cecilia's Hall opened

1763

North Bridge begun

Meal riots

Wilkes hanged in effigy

Tron Kirk bell hung

1764

Netherbow demolished

Wesley preaches on Calton Hill

Nicolson Street riding school opens

Edinburgh Advertiser begins

1765

Penny Post Act

Cataclysmic storm, hundreds dead

1766

George Square started

Death of the Old Pretender

Bathing coaches introduced at Leith

Katharine Nairn escapes execution

Funeral of Lord Provost Drummond

1767

New Town begun

First Botanic Gardens

Stayley riot in the Theatre Royal

Canongate Theatre opened

1768

Wilkes riots, London

Water of Leith flood wrecks ships

Holyrood Abbey collapse, looting

Forth & Clyde Canal begun

Miners' strike

1769

Craig's New Town plan

Comet

Collapse of first North Bridge

Settlement of the Douglas Cause

David Herd: Scots Songs

Theatre Royal opens

1770

West Kirk (St Cuthbert's) built

Earl of Eglinton shot, his killer Mungo Campbell commits suicide

General Reid: Minuets and Marches

1771

Shop signs taken down

Creech starts publishing

1772

Second North Bridge opens

Leith Walk opened as a road

Corri starts publishing

1773

Gale damages North Bridge

Forth & Clyde Canal suspended

1774

Death of Robert Fergusson

Episcopal Chapel opened

Williamson's first street directory

1775

Flu epidemic

Lady Glenorchy's patronage dispute

1776

David Hume's death

Severe frost

Bride: 200 Select Country Dances

Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations

First Royal Observatory

Corri's Ranelagh Gardens opened

First piano arrives

1777

Archers' Hall opened

1778

US War of Independence starts

78th Regiment mutiny

Caledonian Hunt starts

Highland Society of London formed

Buccleuch Street assembly starts

Stabilini arrives

1779

Anti-Catholic riot

Hume: Dialogues on Natural Religion

42nd and 71st regiments mutiny

US Navy tries to burn Leith

West Highland Fencibles mutiny

Mound begun

St Andrew's Church built

1780

Gordon Riots, London

Death of "General" Joe Smith

Scottish Society of Antiquaries founded

McGlashan's collection

Angus Cumming's collection

1781

Lord George Gordon's trial

Marshall's first collection

MacRaes win Battle of Jersey

1782

Aird's first collection

Flu epidemic

Huge snowfall

Meal prices double

Colliers' strike, Duddingston

Disarming Act repealed

Edinburgh Regiment drops its name

American War ends

Two pirates hanged on Leith Sands

1783

Deacon Brodie starts burgling

Pitt becomes Prime Minister

Severe thunderstorms

Famine in the Highlands

James Hay escapes the Tolbooth

The Mound begun

Leith assembly room started

Bathing machines first used at Leith

1784

Canonmills distillery riot

Mrs Siddons in Edinburgh

Shield's Rosina premiered

Macdonald: Highland Vocal Airs

Assembly Rooms piping contest

Gows start publishing

Irish giants on display

Tytler's balloon flight

Protracted freeze

People of Irvine expel the Buchanites

1785

Hutton: Theory of the Earth abstract

George Square assembly room opens

Lunardi's first Edinburgh flight

1786

Mound opened

South Bridge begun

Gale

Slight earthquake

Forth & Clyde Canal restarted

Burns arrives in Edinburgh

1787

Johnson: Scots Musical Museum, vol 1

George Street Assembly Rooms open

Gilmerton Play revived

1788

George III's madness becomes public

Big distillers go bankrupt

Fishermen's battle, Black Rocks

Death of Charles Edward Stuart

Deacon Brodie executed

1789

New Leith Docks begun

Toleration of Episcopalians

Earthquake at Parson's Green

1790

Forth & Clyde Canal opens

Duddingston mine flooded

Edinburgh Equestrian Circus opens

Bridewell built

Prosecution of Miss Burns

Corn Law passed

1792

Paine's Rights of Man a bestseller

Poor harvest

Death of the architect Robert Adam

King's Birthday riot

Friends of the People formed

1793

War with France begins

Scots Militia Bill

Three men imprisoned for sedition

Thomson's Select Collection

Partial eclipse

Outbreak of rabies

Haddock stocks exhausted

Asylum for the Industrious Blind opened

Thomas Muir transported

British Convention meeting

1794

Ritson: Scottish Songs

Margarot, Gerrald & Skirving case

Execution of Robert Watt

Habeas Corpus suspended

Gordon Fencibles mutiny

1795

Bread shortages

Leith Roads naval mutiny

Seditious Writings Bill

Portobello bathing machines

Great freeze

1796

Count d'Artois arrives

Severe storm

Smaller King's Birthday riot

Henry Erskine deposed

1797

Economic collapse

Panic about French invasion

Trial of United Scotsmen

Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons founded

Militia Act

Massacre of Tranent

Magdalen Asylum opened

Tax on clocks and watches

Camperdown victory celebrations

1798

Cox's Glue Works opens in Gorgie

Battle of the Nile victory celebrations

Income tax introduced

Irish rebellion

Rowland Hill preaches to 10,000

Joanna Baillie: Plays on the Passions

1799

Russian plague ship quarantined

Violent snowstorm

Cold summer

Harvest delayed to late November

Meal price rises begin

Auld Licht/New Licht split in Burgher Secession Church

1800

Leith Docks enlarged

Leith Docks freeze over

Gale and snowstorm, ships lost

Meal prices 500% above normal

Meal riots

Edinburgh Musical Society folds

Secession churches split again

1801

Earthquake

Meal riots

Workhouse opened

Brilliant meteor

Aurora; St Elmo's Fire on St Giles

Peace with France; illuminations

1802

Scott: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

Edinburgh Review begins publication

Second New Town plan

Woods of Bellevue felled

1803

Luckenbooths pulled down

Volunteer review at Portobello

Count d'Artois leaves

Flu epidemic

1804

Night Of The False Alarm

Roslin gunpowder mill opened

1805

Last public flogging

Scarlet fever epidemic

Leslie professorial appointment case

Wrights-houses demolished: Gillespie's Hospital built

Battle of Trafalgar

Police Act reorganizes city services

1806

Trial & acquittal of Henry Dundas

Murder of Begbie

Leith Wet Dock opens

Thunderstorm, ship sunk

Auld Licht/New Licht split in Anti-burgher Secession Church

1807

Portobello Baths built

Great snowfall

Measles epidemic

Nelson Monument begun

General Reid's bequest

Whipping of Begg the resurrectionist

1808

George III's Jubilee

New jail, Parliament Square

Inchkeith lighthouse built

Gale destroys Trafalgar display

1809

Heavy snow and frost

1810

Hogg: The Forest Minstrel

St George's Well built

Severe water shortage

1811

Esk Mill prison camp

House on Castle Hill explodes

Comet

George III goes terminally insane

Prince of Wales becomes Regent

Highland Clearances begin

POW escape attempt from the Castle

Hogmanay riot

1812

Meal riots

Weavers' strike

Society for the Suppression of Public Begging set up

Major Cartwright lectures on universal suffrage

First steamer on the Forth

Great Dalkeith Fire

French invasion panic

1813

Catholic Chapel, Broughton Street

Occupation of Paris; illumination

1814

Steam engine pollutes Stockbridge

Edinburgh Savings Bank set up

Leith-Hamburg trade boom and bust

Street fight, Town Guard v. soldiers

Severe water shortage

Huge Bannockburn commemoration

Walter Scott: Waverley

1815

Napoleonic Wars end

Regent Bridge and Calton Jail begun

Pinkie to Fisherrow waggonway

High Street riot

Elizabeth O'Neill's stage successes

First Forth steamships

First Edinburgh Musical Festival

1816

Final North Loch drainage starts

First Burns Night

Leith Races moved to Musselburgh

Simon Fraser's collection

Campbell: Albyn's Anthology

First Jewish community set up

First heating in theatres

Crop failures from Tambora eruption

Relief work projects start

Grand Duke Nicholas's visit

1817

Famine

Relief work projects

Habeas Corpus suspended

Gagging Act

Smallpox epidemic

Town Guard disbanded

Krames and Tolbooth demolished

Newton to Little France waggonway

Blackwood's Magazine starts

Relapsing fever epidemic

1818

Scott: Heart of Midlothian

Susan Ferrier: Marriage

Regalia of Scotland rediscovered

Execution of Robert Johnson

Gale blows down St John's tower

New Calton Hill Observatory

Woodburn Bridge, Dalkeith

Gas lighting starts

1819

Deep economic depression

Year of Radical agitation

Peterloo Massacre

Invasion panic

Prince Leopold of Belgium visits

Regent Bridge formally opened

First savings banks

Hogg: Jacobite Relics

1820

Lanarkshire weavers' rising

George IV crowned

Illumination for Queen Caroline

Eclipse

1821

Leith-London steamboat service

Newhaven Chain Pier built

Cowgate fire; Bannerman family dies

First water supply to houses

Legal case over the Beacon

Carlyle's revelation in Leith Walk

Hanging of David Haggart

Two pirates hanged on Leith Sands

1822

Union Canal opens

Princes Street gas lighting

First Highland Show

George IV's visit

National Monument begun

Sir Alexander Boswell dies in a duel

Huge Post Office fraud discovered

1823

R.A. Smith moves to St George's

Scots v Irish riot, Musselburgh Races

Combe starts practicing phrenology

1824

Botanic Gardens move to Inverleith

Sadler's balloon flight to Fife

Great High Street Fire

Execution of the robber Charles McEwan

Hogg: Confessions of a Justified Sinner

1825

Royal High School begun

Shandwick Place gas explosion

Mechanics' Library founded

Post office robbery

Aurora

1826

Day of thick fog and frost

Aurora

Coal railway from Dalkeith

Scott: Letters of Malachi Malagrowther

Slump

Scott, Constable & Ballantyne insolvency

Tornado and waterspout

Meteor bursts

Anti-slavery movement starts

Andrew Crawfurd's ballad collection

W & AK Johnston start map business

1827

King's Bridge opens (Johnston Tce)

George IV Bridge begun

Stobbs gunpowder mill explosion

Ghost seen in the High Street

Death of Bobby Auld

Execution of William Thomson in Dalkeith

Mantraps ruled illegal in Scotland

Relapsing fever epidemic

1828

Leith-Queensferry steam coach

Death of Wee Geordie More

Dysentery epidemic

Typhoid epidemic

Wife sold in the Grassmarket

Graveyard watchman Andrew Ewart hanged for murder

Brilliant meteor

1829

First Catholic Emancipation meeting

"Rowite" Pentecostal revival

Anti-Irish riot

First Temperance Society

Mons Meg returned to Scotland

Wheat speculation in Leith

William Burke executed

High School at Calton Hill finished

Dean Bridge begun

First boarding school (Loretto)

1830

George IV dies

William II & IV crowned

Marfield gunpowder mill explosion

"Three Days" revolt in France

Charles X arrives

1831

Reform Bill passes Commons

Riots over MP's re-election

Edinburgh-Dalkeith railway begun

Paganini plays in Edinburgh

Knox dissects a beached whale

1832

Cholera epidemic

Reform Act

Peter Buchan: Secret Songs of Silence

Steam mills in Leith burn down

First rail passengers to Dalkeith

Charles X leaves

Election

1833

Burgh Reform Act

Leith becomes a burgh

Council goes bankrupt

Gale in the Forth; Mary Ann sunk

Whirlwind on Arthur's Seat

Slavery abolished

Anti-Annuity-Tax agitation

Stonemasons' strike

1834

Earl Grey's visit

Bakers unionize

Attack on the Duke of Buccleuch

Gilbert Hunter's farewell concert

1835

Daniel O'Connell's visit

Melrose's tea import business starts

Bakers agitate for 12-hour day

Hanging of Elizabeth McNeil

Scarlet fever epidemic

1836

Fire, Greenside

Eclipse

Edinburgh Radical Association set up

George IV Bridge finished

West Bow demolished

Heriot Free Schools open

Cllr Russell jailed over Annuity Tax

1837

First iron ship built at Leith

Miners' strike

Queen Victoria crowned

1838

Peak of 4-year typhus epidemic

Cotton-spinners' trial

Snowball Riot

Chartist rally on Calton Hill

Execution of Mary MacKinnon

Granton Harbour opened

Jenner's department store opens

Shetland wreckers' trial

Angus Mackay's pibroch collection

Dauney: Ancient Scotish Melodies

1839

Forth oyster beds privatized

Eglinton Tournament

Anti-Corn-Law League set up

Chartist Convention in Edinburgh

1840

Granton-Burntisland ferry starts

Zoo set up in Broughton

First soup kitchen

Robert Peddie imprisoned

Navvies riot against police, Dalkeith

Pit ponies introduced

Scott Monument begun

1841

Petition against the Corn Laws

Kirk orders an anti-dissent fast day

First night shelter

1842

Edinburgh-Glasgow railway opens

Miners' riots

Queen Victoria's first visit

1843

Disruption of Church of Scotland

Hill and Adamson start photography

Women and children banned in mines

Marion Reid: A Plea for Woman published

Anti-Corn-Law agitation

Dalkeith colliery band set up

Comet

Relapsing fever epidemic

1844

Lowe's collection

Memorial and parade for 1793 martyrs

Fireball

Polkas introduced

Dunsapie Loch created

1845

Old Greyfriars Church burns down

1846

Potato famine, Ireland and Highlands

Gale

Masons' strike, Haymarket railway

Navvies riot against police

Railway to London opens

Hawthorns locomotive factory opens

Heriot's school insurrection

1847

Simpson first uses chloroform

Chartist and Annuity Tax riots

New wing of prison opened

Scotland Street rail tunnel opens

Secession and Relief churches reunify

Dr Guthrie's Ragged Schools

Jenny Lind sings

1848

Cholera epidemic

Telegraph arrives

New corn market in the Grassmarket

Bailie Stott jailed

Chartist riots

Mary of Gueldres reburied

Flu epidemic

Chopin visits

1849

Cockburn's conservation manifesto

1850

Suburbs built north of Dean Bridge

First Cook's tour to Edinburgh

Forth rail ferry starts

Execution of "Holy Willie" Bennison

1851

New abattoir at Fountainbridge

Paraffin Young's first oilshale mine

1852

Victoria Dock, Leith

Time ball started, Calton Hill

1853

Adelphi (Theatre Royal) burns down

Forbes-Mackenzie Act

Simpson chloroforms Queen Victoria

1854

Part of City Wall collapses

Cholera epidemic

Execution of William Cumming

Army recognizes the bagpipes

Britain enters Crimean War

1855

Rubber manufacture starts

Meadows riot opens it for a road

Caledonian Distillery opens

Newspaper tax abolished

1856

Troops return from Crimea

McEwan's Brewery opens

1857

Trial of Madeleine Smith

Fire, North Bank Street

Thomas Guthrie: The City: its sins and sorrows

Indian Mutiny begins

1858

First rugby match

Bright comet

General Hope of Pinkie dies in battle

1859

St Cuthbert's Co-op

Melville Drive built

Africanus Horton graduates

War panic

Volunteer Rifles set up

National Gallery opened

1860

First Volunteer Review

Portobello promenade built

Nine-hour day agitation

Firsy municipal bowling green

1861

Building workers' strike and lockout

Stockbridge Colonies begun

Dalkeith Co-operative Society set up

Alhambra Music Hall, Nicolson St

High Street tenement collapse

Death of Prince Albert

1862

Cow attacks woman on Leith Links

1863

Midlothian Free Miners' Society

1864

Scott Monument finished

Fettes College begun

Storms and shipwrecks

Last public execution: George Bryce

1865

Cox's Gymnasium opens, Fettes Row

Midlothian farmworkers' union

Trial of Dr Pritchard

Littlejohn's sanitary report

Theatre Royal burns down

Leith Music Hall opens

1866

Church of Scotland allows the organ

Cholera outbreak

Reform demonstration

1867

Fireworks explosion, Canongate

Lister starts antiseptic surgery

Macarte's Theatre Royal opens, Leith

1868

Hurricane

Second Reform Act

Leith election meeting riot

Scottish Co-Op formed

Caledonian Brewery opens

1869

Powderhall Stadium opens

Waverley Market built

Marchmont development begins

Drought

Lister becomes Professor of Surgery

Albert Dock opened, Leith

Portobello Pier built

1870

Braid Burn flood

Water works enter public ownership

Caledonian Railway Station built

Annuity Tax abolished

Mirage seen in the Forth

Steam coach service to Portobello

Royal Infirmary opens

1871

Tramways start

Trade unions legalized

Riots over baby farming, Portobello

Body found in workhouse watertank

Dalkeith candleworks fire

Paris Commune

Ashanti War

1872

Sophia Jex-Blake becomes a doctor

Elections become secret ballots

Schooling becomes compulsory

Edinburgh Literacy Institute built

1873

Horse trams to Leith and Portobello

Gale, new building destroyed

Miners' strike

First game of Association football

First Bostock & Wombwell circus

1874

Blackford Hill opens to the public

Newhaven gunpowder trade stops

First football team (3rd ERV)

New Star music hall opens, Leith

1875

Sankey and Moody's visit

Theatre Royal burns down

Southminster Theatre burns down

Queen's Theatre opens

Child chimney sweeps stopped

Five more football teams set up

First Scottish tennis championships

Castle Terrace theatre opened

1876

First shopping arcade, Princes Street

Four-year economic slump begins

Cookery schools set up

1877

Queen's Theatre burns down

Storm destroys Portobello seawall

Leith Docks fire

Hotel fire, Greenside

1878

City Paper Works burns down

Nelson's printing works burns down

Execution of Eugene Chantrelle

Gore pit opens, Arniston

Brunton's Wire Works, Musselburgh

Factory Act

St Bernards FC formed

1879

Proposed Forth bridge abandoned

Huge snowstorm

Glen: Highland Bagpipe Music

New Royal Infirmary opens

Dental Hospital opens

Water of Leith floods

Gladstone's Midlothian Campaign

1880

First telephones in Edinburgh

Saturday half-holiday

Tay Bridge Disaster

1881

Very cold winter

Seymour and Grant's shooting spree

"Wet Review" in Holyrood Park

Police station bomb attack, Loanhead

Great storm and fishing disaster

1882

Henry George visits Edinburgh

Crofters' War, Western Isles

1883

St Giles restoration

Lyceum Theatre opens

Dead whale put on show

Election bribes banned

Democratic Federation set up

Polton Mill brass band formed

1884

Theatre Royal burns down

Execution of Innes and Vickers

Floods

Storm makes the day dark as night

Edinburgh Dock opens, Leith

William Morris visits Edinburgh

Duncan's confectioners opens

1885

Third Reform Act

North British Distillery opens

1886

International exhibition, Meadows

Tynecastle football ground opens

Agitation over mass unemployment

1887

Gas works in public ownership

Newsome's Circus burns down

Infirmary Street Baths open

International bicycle race meeting

"Deer Drive" trial of Lewis cottars

Leith Athletic FC formed

Hibernian FC wins Scottish Cup

Macdonald: Skye Collection

Paterson's concert series starts

Colinton & Currie Pipe Band formed

1888

Flying Scotsman wins Railway Race

Small earthquake

Cable tramway to Goldenacre

Scottish Labour Party formed

1889

Mauricewood mine fire

Execution of baby farmer Jessie King

Cabdrivers' strike

Scottish carters' strike

Princess (Gaiety) theatre opens, Leith

1890

Forth Rail Bridge opens

Public Library opens

International exhibition, Slateford

Caledonian Railway Station burnt

Hearts FC top Scottish League

Lady Victoria pit begun

McGonagall: Poetic Gems

1891

St Mary's Catholic Cathedral opens

1892

Tramways in municipal ownership

Jenner's burns down

Geddes' Outlook Tower opened

1893

Dalry Public Baths open

Nine-week strike at Newbattle colliery

1894

Minor smallpox epidemic

Sewage diverted from Water of Leith

17-week strike at Newbattle colliery

New Caledonian Station

Lothian Brass Band set up

1895

Electric street lighting

First Scottish brass championship

Lady Victoria pit opened

Flu epidemic

MacDonald's Gesto Collection

1896

Third North Bridge begun

Waverley Bridge opens

Train crash at Haymarket

Hamish MacCunn: Jeanie Deans

First cinema show

Blackford Observatory built

Imperial Dock begun, Leith

Czar of Russia visits

Women allowed to vote and stand in parish elections

1897

Masons strike for an 8-hour day

Cold winter and storm

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

Cowan's Close fire

1898

Heat wave

Execution of John Herdman

Newhaven Chain Pier washed away

1899

Drought

First "Gothenburg System" pub

Wauchope killed at Magersfontein

First motor bus service

1900

Big motor car exhibition

Masons strike against wage cuts

Partial eclipse

Storms, waterspout at Duddingston

Riot at pro-Boer meeting

Miners' 8-hour day celebrations

Harry Lauder hits the London stage

1901

Elsie Inglis maternity hospital

Roslin mine opens

HMS Active sunk at Granton

1902

Granton Gas Works opens

Hibernian FC wins Scottish Cup

1903

Leith Central Station opens

Leith port expanded for coal

Niddry Castle oilworks opens

James Connolly's return visit

Funeral of Sir Hector MacDonald

King Edward visits

1904

Buffalo Bill's show in Gorgie

Princes Street Gardens floral clock

Connolly leaves for America

1905

Case of plague

Electric trams in Leith

Royal Review, Holyrood Park

1906

Motor bus service to Corstorphine

Arbroath train crash

1907

Edinburgh College of Art opens

Queen Victoria statue unveiled, Leith

Last horse trams

Smeaton pit opened

Meningitis outbreak

1908

Scottish National Exhibition, Gorgie

First Scottish Home Rule Bill

1909

Labour exchanges set up

Salvesen starts Antarctic whaling

Last horsedrawn buses

Portobello Marine Gardens opens

Easthouses mine opens

Gorebridge explosive store blows up

Kennedy-Fraser: Songs of the Hebrides

1910

Comet

Usher Hall built

1911

Dalkeith Poisoning Case

Empire Theatre fire, 9 dead

Worldwide year of labour agitation

Leith dock strike

1912

Severe storm

Miners' strike

1913

New Edinburgh Zoo opens

Suffragette bombings

Execution of John Higgins

Leith dock strike

Temperance Act

1914

Suffragettes burn Whitekirk church

Hearts FC top Scottish League

Burntisland train crash

Corporation bus service starts

Suffragettes bomb Roslin Chapel

Leith Walk Alhambra opens

Outbreak of WW I

Port Edgar used as a destroyer base

1915

Gretna rail disaster

St Bernards FC wins Scottish Cup

1916

Conscription introduced

Zeppelin raid on Leith

Battle of the Somme

Turnhouse airfield opens

1917

Portobello Pier demolished

1918

"Battle" of the Isle of May

John Maclean's trial for sedition

Armistice

Port Edgar returned to civilians

Robb's shipyard opens

Representation of the People Act

1919

Defeated German Fleet in the Forth

Pandemic influenza

Scottish Dyes starts in Grangemouth

Jailing of Manny Shinwell

1920

Leith merged with Edinburgh

1921

Miners' strike

Crown Prince Hirohito visits

1922

Port Hopetoun closed

Edinburgh-London Hunger March

1923

Peter Fairlie's dance hall opens

Execution of John Savage

Scottish Country Dance Soc. formed

William Ross's first pipe tune book

1924

First radio broadcast

Eric Liddell in Paris Olympics

Wheatley's Housing Act

Calton Jail closed

Saughton Prison opens

Scottish Oils starts in Grangemouth

Arniston & Gorebridge Pipe Band

1925

Murrayfield Stadium opens

1926

General Strike

Miners' Strike

1927

First Indian pedlars arrive

SMT Pipe Band formed

1928

National Party of Scotland founded

Scottish Hunger March to Edinburgh

Full voting rights for women

Traffic lights introduced

Earl Haig's funeral

Execution of Alan Wales

Stenhouse housing scheme begin

1929

Wall Street Crash

Primo Carnera visits Edinburgh

First sound-equipped cinema

1930

Craigmillar housing scheme begun

Second Hunger March

First anti-fascist street fights

1932

Cavendish dance hall opens

Synagogue opens

Third Hunger March

IRA organize in Leith

Tenement blown down by gale

1933

Fourth Hunger March

Kosmo Club raid

1934

John Cormack elected to the Council

New Meadowbank stadium opens

1935

Saltire Society set up

George V's Silver Jubilee

Castle Keys ceremony reinstated

Anti-Catholic riots

1936

Scottish Office moves to Edinburgh

Portobello Pool opens

Leith rope factory fire

Anti-Catholic riot

Edward VII's abdication

Spanish Civil War

1937

Jimmy Shand's first broadcast

Coronation of George VI

Castlecary train crash

Newbattle Welfare Pipe Band

Granton-Burntisland ferry stops

1938

Air raid precautions organized

Gay vice raid on Maximes Ballroom

1939

IRA threaten collieries

West Pilton begun

St Andrews House finished

Children evacuated

Outbreak of World War 2

Attempt to bomb the Forth Bridge

Air-sea battle over battleship Hood

1940

Ration books issued

Arrest of the spy Werner Walti

Anti-Italian riots

Italians interned

Tanker sunk by a mine at Inchkeith

Edinburgh and Leith bombed

Gorgie whisky bond bombed

1941

Leith bombed

Massive snowfall

1942

Smallpox epidemic

Polish soldiers arrive

Leith breakwaters built

HMS Edinburgh sunk

1943

Ferranti's electronics factory

Mine strike, Newcraighall

Salisbury Cinema burns down

1944

Single-plane strafe attack

1945

VE Day celebrations

1946

Theatre Royal burns down

Broomhouse begun

1947

Severe winter

Edinburgh Festival starts

West Calder oilshale mine explosion

Coal mines nationalized

First Indian restaurant

1948

Warriston and Powderhall floods

Mines nationalized

National Health Service

1949

Paul Robeson visits Edinburgh

Scottish Covenant petition

1950

Flying boat service lasts one month

Taking of the Stone of Destiny

Thistle Foundation housing built

Niddrie housing scheme begun

1951

Bulk Recruitment aids immigration

School of Scottish Studies set up

Execution of Dobie Smith

1952

George VI dies

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth

First TV broadcast

Tron Kirk closed

1953

Severe storms

Slateford flood

Pithead baths installed

Meadows bandstand demolished

1954

Last two Edinburgh executions

1955

Newhaven mussel fishing banned

Western Harbour opens, Leith

Carr Aikman and CA Modes fires

Rock Around the Clock hits UK charts

Billy Graham tours Scotland

1956

Hearts FC win Scottish Cup

Last trams run

Restoration scheme, Lawnmarket

Clean Air Act

1957

Gale damages Post Office

Mutrie's costumiers burns down

Restoration scheme, Canongate

1958

Jackie Dennis in the charts

1959

Major storm

Teddy-boys' riot at Wallyford

Niddrie-Marischal House burnt down

Niddrie built

Day of heavy fog

1960

Leith Old Town demolished

Granton oil terminal built

1961

Fire closes Gilmerton colliery

Salvesen's whaling stops

Niddry Castle oilworks closes

Greenside Village demolished

Spark: Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Bungy's beatnik coffee bar opens

1962

Sean Connery plays Bond in Dr No

Polmont train crash

Gale

Lothian shale production stops

Prestongrange pit closes

Gaumont cinema fire

First multistorey car park, Castle Tce

Uniroyal factory fire

The Place jazz club opens

1963

Scottish Opera set up

First vegetarian restaurant

Traverse Theatre starts

First nudity in public performance

Beeching rail closures

1964

Forth Road Bridge opens

First Craigmillar Festival

The Athenians: You Tell Me

Tam White's first band formed

1965

Plan for 6-lane inner-city ring road

Ramsay pit closes, Loanhead

Pirate radio ship in the Forth

Blues Council bassist killed in crash

1966

Hewlett-Packard plant, Queensferry

Woolmet pit closure

The Moonrakers become a local hit

1967

North Sea oil exploration starts

Gale uproots trees

Fireball hits Leith

1968

"Low Q" gale

1969

Roslin mine closes

Leith Harbour locks go into use

1970

Royal Commonwealth Pool opens

Present Meadowbank Stadium opens

Fountain Brewery, Fountainbridge

Ken Buchanan's world boxing title

St James Centre opens

1971

6 Edinburgh kids die in Cairngorms

Royal Scots Dragoons: Amazing Grace

1972

Miners' strike

Dick Gaughan's first album

1974

Bay City Rollers hit no 1

First independent radio broadcast

Meadowbank Thistle FC founded

Three-Day Week

1975

Gay Centre opens

North Sea oil first piped ashore

1976

Pub licencing laws relaxed

Edinburgh Airport opens

Very hot dry summer

Punk arrives

1977

World's End pub murders

Protests against nuclear energy

The Rezillos: I Can't Stand My Baby

1978

Severe winter, strikes

First reggae club

Dalkeith mine closes

Leith dry dock fire

1979

Devolution referendum fails

Thatcher elected

Portobello Pool closes

Folk and Jazz Festivals start

1980

Protests against nuclear weapons

1981

The Exploited: Punk's Not Dead

1982

Gorgie City Farm opens

Jimmy Boyle released from jail

Pope visits

Protests against Falklands War

1983

First AIDS cases

1984

Miners' strike

Robb Caledon shipyard closes

Cameron Toll shopping centre

Dalai Lama visits

Falkirk train crash

Bus deregulation

1985

University parapsychology dept

Last horse-drawn milk floats

1986

Hearts play in Prague

Chernobyl disaster

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie: The Rattler

1987

Caledonian Distillery closes

CS gas attack at Hibs-Celtic match

The Proclaimers: Letter from America

1988

E and Manchester dance music

City Bypass built

First of the Beltane Fires, Calton Hill

Piper Alpha explosion

Lockerbie plane bombing

1989

Poll Tax introduced

Bilston Glen pit closure

Monktonhall pit closure

Racist murder of Ahmed Shek

1991

Poll Tax abolished

1992

Monktonhall mine reopens

London Street school closure

European Heads of State meeting

Democracy for Scotland march

Vigil for Scottish Parliament starts

1993

Irvine Welsh: Trainspotting

1994

Dirty milk causes E. coli outbreak

National Lottery starts

Death of John Smith

Craigmillar riots

1995

Theatre Royal Bar burnt out

Rosyth Naval Dockyard closes

Conference Centre opens

Shallow Grave released

Braveheart released

Mosque opens

1996

Lothian Region abolished

Dunblane Massacre

1997

Dolly the Sheep cloned at Roslin

Comet

Devolution referendum succeeds

Death of Diana Spencer

Monktonhall pit closes for good

Commonwealth Conference, armed police block city

David Begg's traffic schemes

1998

Caledonian Brewery fire

Britannia moved to Leith

Stray ostriches found in Leith

1999

Second bombing of Iraq

Bombing of Serbia

First Scottish Parliament election

Partial solar eclipse

2000

Millennium Bug

"Clause 28" campaign

Floods

2001

Foot and mouth disease

Houses collapse from mine subsidence

World Trade Centre bombing

2002

Cowgate fire

2003

Invasion of Iraq

Murder of 14-year-old Jodi Jones

Aurora

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Copyright © 2001, Jack Campin