Events from the year 1959 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
- Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Clyde
- Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Thomson
- Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord Gibson
Events
- 1 January – 5 members of the Universal Hiking Club of Glasgow die in a storm in the Grampians.[1]
- 9 January – Clyde-built fisheries protection vessel Freya founders off Caithness with the loss of 3 of her crew of 20.[2]
- 28 January – a Glasgow Corporation Tramways tramcar collides with a lorry and catches fire in Shettleston Road with 3 killed.[3]
- 2 May – the Chapelcross nuclear power station opens.[4]
- 4 July – British Railways close their Kilmarnock Works.
- 18 September – Auchengeich mining disaster: 47 miners die as the result of an underground fire at Auchengeich Colliery, Lanarkshire.[5]
- 8 October – United Kingdom general election results in a record third successive Conservative victory.[6] Harold Macmillan increases the Conservative majority to 100 seats across the UK[7] but the Unionist Party in Scotland loses 4 seats.
- 14 November – the nuclear Dounreay fast reactor achieves criticality.[8]
- 17 November – Prestwick and Renfrew Airports become the first in the U.K. with duty-free shops.[9]
- 6 December – Aberdeen trawler George Robb runs aground at Duncansby Head in a severe gale with the loss of all 12 crew.[10]
- 7 December – Leith coaster Servus runs aground below Dunbeath Castle; her crew are rescued by life-boat.[11]
- 8 December – Broughty Ferry life-boat Mona capsizes on service to North Carr Lightship with the loss of all 8 of the life-boat crew.
- William Theodore Heard is elevated to cardinal, the first Scot to hold such an office since the Reformation.
- St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society opens Scotland's first supermarket in Edinburgh.[12]
- North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board's Sloy-Awe Hydro-Electric Power Scheme becomes fully operational; and peat-fired generating station at Altnabreac opened.
- North Highland College established.
- The fossil ichthyosaur Dearcmhara is first discovered by Brian Shawcross on the Trotternish peninsula of Skye.
Births
- 31 January – Heather Anderson, SNP politician
- 12 April – Jackson Carlaw, Conservative politician. leader of the Scottish Conservatives
- 16 April – Alison Ramsay, field hockey player
- 27 April – Sheena Easton, singer
- 27 May – Gerard Kelly, television and pantomime actor (died 2010 in London)
- 9 July – Jim Kerr, rock singer-songwriter
- 16 July – James MacMillan, composer
- 27 July – Siobhan Redmond, actress
- 28 July – Lorraine Fullbrook, Conservative politician
- 31 July – Andrew Marr, print and television journalist
- 29 August – Eddi Reader, folk singer-songwriter
- 7 September – Rona Munro, dramatist and screenwriter
- 8 September – Judy Murray, tennis player and coach[13]
- 10 October – Mark Johnston, racehorse trainer
- 25 November – Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats (died 2015)[14]
- 30 November – Lorraine Kelly, television presenter
- date unknown
- Meg Bateman, Gaelic writer and poet[15]
- Robert Crawford, poet and literary scholar
- Andy Gray, actor (died 2021)
- Alexander Stoddart, sculptor
Deaths
- 2 July – William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir, industrialist and politician (born 1877)
- 1 October – Evelyn Vida Baxter, ornithologist (born 1879)[16]
- 15 November – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)
- 25 November – Robert Smyth McColl, footballer and retail store founder (born 1876)
The arts
- Jane Duncan's first novel My Friends the Miss Boyds is published by Macmillan.
See also
References
- ^ Shorrock, Paul (4 November 2019). "Callater Stables Bothy and the Jock's Road Tragedy of 1959". One Man's Mountains. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
- ^ "Protection Cruiser Heeled Over". The Times. No. 54457. London. 11 May 1959. p. 14.
- ^ Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (1959). Tramway accidents: Report on the collision and subsequent fire which occurred on 28th January 1959 to a Glasgow Corporation tramcar in Shettleston Road, Glagow. H.M.S.O.
- ^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "Community pays tribute to Auchengeich mining disaster victims". Kirkintilloch Herald. 11 September 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- ^ "1959: 'Supermac' leads Tories to victory". BBC News. 9 October 1959. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.
- ^ "1959 General election results summary". UK Political Info. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
- ^ "Chronology of Scottish History". A Timeline of Scottish History. Rampant Scotland. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ "MFV George Robb (A406)". WreckSite. 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ "MV Servus". WreckSite. 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ "Facelift for the first Scots supermarket". The Grocer. 6 June 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ^ "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Judy Murray". universitystory.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ^ "Charles Kennedy obituary". The Guardian. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
- ^ "Meg Bateman | Birlinn Ltd – Independent Scottish Publisher". Birlinn Ltd. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose (2007). Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen. Edinburgh University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780748626601.