Robert Dale Owen

Robert Dale Owen died on the 24th of June, 1877.

Robert Dale Owen was undoubtedly Scottish as he was born in Glasgow and spent the majority of his first twenty-four years in Scotland. Nevertheless, Owen is far more famous in his adopted land of the United States, where he made his mark. Some online biographies suggest he is best known “for being integral to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution,” but that is a mere morsel and no more important than the fact of Dale, Indiana, being named after him. What Owen is really famous for is

Elgin Cathedral and the 'Wolf of Badenoch'

Elgin Cathedral was burned by the 'Wolf of Badenoch', on the 17th of June, 1390.

Elgin Cathedral, which is now a ruin, was set alight three times. All of that must be considered truly unfortunate and only goes to show that building edifices to the glory of God is also, probably, a folly. For ye catholic believers the demise of Elgin Cathedral must be  regrettable, but for ye followers of Calvin and Knox and the religious revolution, maybe its being reduced to an historic ruin and tourist attraction is something of the order of just desserts. Elgin Cathedral was known as the 'Lantern of the North', ostensibly because it was the ecclesiastical centre of the Bishopric of Moray. Alternatively, you must consider

The Battle of Sauchieburn

The Battle of Sauchieburn was fought on the 11th of June, 1488.

There have been many occasions throughout history where members of the same family, fathers and sons even, have fought on opposing sides in conflicts. The American Civil War springs to mind as does the British and in particular at Culloden, the last battle fought on its mainland soil. The battle at Sauchieburn was one such occasion in Scottish history as it pitted the young Duke of Rothesay against his father, King James III of Scotland. Actually, pitted is a bit of a misnomer, because the son didn't strike a blow in anger, nevertheless, the King and the Prince were on opposing sides.

Come the end of the affray, the King lay dead and as Nigel Tranter would have it

Jane Mathison Haining

Jane Mathison Haining was born on the 6th of June, 1897.

For many decades since the tail end of the Second World War, Jane Haining was one of Scotland's unsung heroines, but thankfully that has changed recently, in the first decade of the 21st Century, with a lot of overdue and well deserved media attention. Jane Haining was a Presbyterian missionary who died for her beliefs, but she didn't die defending the faith in the 19th Century, she died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944. Jane's story is one of personal sacrifice and selfless heroism. As a matron in a Kirk mission for disadvantaged Jewish children in Hungary during World War II, when the Gestapo came calling, Jane Haining refused to abandon her charges and that bravery cost her life.

One of only ten Scottish people believed to have been killed in a Nazi death camp, Jane has been  dubbed 'Scotland's Schindler' by some of the

The hanging of Scott and Adamson

David Scott and Hugh Adamson were executed at Glasgow Cross on the 5th of June, 1805.

According to the website Capital Punishment UK (.org), between 1800 and 1868, there were 273 people publicly hanged in Scotland. Of those puir souls, 259 were men and 14 were women. A further 207 were sentenced to death, but escaped that fate by being reprieved or 'respited'. At the time, Scotland had a system of Assize Courts that covered four  circuits; North, South, East and West, in case you hadn't guessed. There was a High Court of Justiciary, which sat in Edinburgh, but that was an independent court. In cases where the death sentence was pronounced, it had to be approved by the King and Privy Council, which meant that the condemned sometimes had a fair bit of time on their hands, between sentence and execution – or reprieve – during which to probe their conscience. Communications in Scotland weren't that quick, before the M8 was built, you'll understand.

Interestingly, less than

Alison Pearson, witch

Alison Pearson was tried for witchcraft and burnt at the stake, on the 28th of May, 1588.

The bewitching tale of Alison Pearson appears in several sources, notably in ''The Legend of the Bischop of St. Androis Lyfe' and the Survival of Scottish Poetry', by David J. Parkinson of the University of Saskatchewan, and Sir Walter Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish border', in his introduction to the tale of Tamlane; 'On the fairies of popular superstition'. Scott summed up Pearson's story very well, when he wrote, “For this idle story the poor woman actually suffered death.” What he meant, of course, was that stories of witches and suchlike are mere 'idle tales'. Nobody believes in fairies.

The trouble was that in post Reformation Scotland, plenty

David Octavius Hill

David Octavius Hill, painter and pioneer of photography, died on the 17th of May, 1870.

With a name like David Octavius Hill, he was surely destined to become famous, but his partner, Robert Adamson deserves equal credit for the pair's photographic achievements, despite the lack of an intriguing middle name. According to Malcolm Daniel, of the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (at least he was in 2000), Hill and Adamson “pioneered the aesthetic terrain of photography and created a body of work that still ranks among the highest achievements of photographic portraiture.”

Others have written that the complementary skills of Hill and Adamson achieved results with the primitive calotype process that have served as a standard and challenge to