Historian NORMAN FERGUSON looks back over the centuries and finds momentous events which happened on the 12 Days of Christmas and New Year

Christmas Eve

1818

‘Silent Night’ is performed for the first time at a chapel near Salzburg, Austria. The song is co-written by the local priest. It becomes a well-loved Christmas carol.

1828

In Edinburgh, the trial begins of William Burke. He is convicted of three murders, the victims of which were sold to the city’s medical school for dissection. Burke has a bleak start to the New Year. He is hung in January.

1914

The first air raid on Britain during the First World War takes place when a German aircraft drops a bomb on Dover. It explodes in a garden, and causes only one injury - to a gardener blown out of the tree he was pruning.

1968

Apollo 8 reaches the moon. The three astronauts make a TV broadcast which includes a reading from Genesis as they wish the watching millions a happy Christmas.

Christmas Day

1914

Along the Western Front sporadic periods of peace break out. Opposing troops exchange gifts and play football. A British officer writes: "All this talk of hate, all this fury at each other that has raged, is quelled and stayed by the magic of Christmas."

1932

King George V makes the first royal Christmas broadcast. The king's speech begins: "Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled this Christmas Day to speak to all my peoples throughout the Empire."

1950

The Stone of Destiny is taken from Westminster Abbey in London. Four students bring it north of the border in what one London newspaper describes as a “coarse and vulgar” crime.

Boxing Day

1251

In York, King Alexander III is married to Princess Margaret, daughter of the English king Henry III. Alexander is 10 years of age, his bride is 11.

1998

A severe storm hits Glasgow with winds of 93mph recorded. A large part of St Stephen’s Church’s spire in Bath Street is sent crashing down on to the church’s roof.

2004

A tsunami leads to 200,000 deaths. Caused by an earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra, the waves travel at almost 500 mph and reach heights of 15 metres. It remains one of the world’s worst modern natural disasters.

December 27

1831

HMS Beagle leaves on a five-year-long voyage. On board is a young man who wishes to see the world before becoming a parson. Charles Darwin’s studies lead him to write a ground-breaking book: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

1853

In Birmingham, Charles Dickens makes the first public reading of A Christmas Carol. His tale of a curmudgeonly man who refuses to acknowledge Christmas remains a classic tale.

1904

A new play by Kirriemuir’s JM Barrie debuts on the London stage. Peter Pan tells of a boy who never wants to grow up.

1983

‘The Tartan Pimpernel’ dies. The Reverend Donald Caskie had helped Allied soldiers and airmen escape from Nazi-occupied France during World War Two.

December 28

1734

The notorious Rob Roy MacGregor dies. Known for cattle rustling, he also took part in the 1689 and 1715 Jacobite uprisings. He was eventually pardoned by King George I and lived out his life in Balquhidder.

1879

The Tay Rail Bridge collapses during a storm. Seventy five people are killed when the Edinburgh to Dundee train falls into the River Tay. The bridge, which was the longest in the world at the time, had been open less than two years.

1895

In Paris, the first-ever commercial motion picture screening takes place. Ten short films are shown by the Lumiere brothers.

December 29

1170

Thomas a Becket is killed in Canterbury Cathedral. Knights of the English king Henry II had understood the king’s remark “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” to mean the Archbishop should be executed.

1975

The Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts come into force in Britain to make discriminatory practices towards women illegal.

1995

Glasgow’s lowest-ever temperature is recorded, at -20C. The maximum temperature during the day is -12C.

December 30

1574

In Aberdeen, the Kirk Session charge some members of the parish with playing, dancing and singing ‘filthy carols’.

1916

Rasputin is murdered. The ‘Mad Monk’ is poisoned, shot and thrown into a river before finally succumbing.

1887

A petition is delivered, addressed to Queen Victoria, calling for British public houses to be closed on Sundays. It contains over a milllion women’s signatures.

Hogmanay

1929

Seventy children are killed in the Glen Cinema in Paisley. A panic ensues after fire starts in the projection room. Some of the children are unable to escape through locked doors.

1938

Revellers gather in George Square to bring in the New Year for the first time, rather than at Glasgow Cross. Anti-aircraft searchlights are used for illuminating the City Chambers.

1695

The Window Tax is introduced in England. Many householders brick up their properties’ windows to avoid paying. It is later adopted in Scotland.

January 1

1600

Scotland recognises 1st January as being the start of the New Year, as opposed to 25th of March.

1973

Britain joins the European Economic Community. Membership of the ‘Common Market’ is intended to increase trading opportunities.

1985

The first commercial mobile phone call in Britain is made. The Vodafone chairman’s son phones his dad just after midnight.

1995

Serial killer Fred West is found dead in his cell. He had been charged with 12 murders, including that of his own daughter. His wife Rose was later found guilty of 10 murders.

January 2

1872

In Utah, USA, Brigham Young is placed under house arrest. The leader of the Church of the Latter Day Saints faces charges of “lascivious cohabitation”, ie, bigamy. It is claimed he married 55 women and had 56 children.

1971

The Old Firm game finishes 1-1 and the 75,000-strong crowd are making their way out when a crush occurs at one of the stairwells. Sixty-six fans die with many more injured. The youngest fatality is only eight years old.

1979

Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. It is thought the Sex Pistols bassist stabbed her with a knife. He takes his own life a month later.

January 3

1746

Jacobite forces under the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, leave Glasgow, where they have spent time after retreating northwards from Derby. A witness recalled that Bonnie Prince Charlie looked pale and dejected.

1911

In London’s East End a gun battle between Latvian anarchists and soldiers and policemen sees two of the anarchists killed. The Sidney Street Siege involves Home Secretary Winston Churchill who is ridiculed for directing matters on the scene.

1946

Lord Haw-Haw is hung. William Joyce had broadcast propaganda messages from Nazi Germany throughout the Second World War until being captured in 1945. He was found guilty of High Treason and executed at Wandsworth Prison.

January 4

1690

Glasgow is authorised by King William and Queen Mary to elect its own magistrates, provost, baillies and other officers within the burgh, in similar fashion to Edinburgh.

1967

Donald Campbell is killed while attempting to break his own water speed record. At Coniston Water in the Lake District his Bluebird craft lifts off and somersaults. He is killed immediately.

1970

The Beatles get together for the last time in the studio. Overdubs are recorded for their Let It Be album.

 

Norman Ferguson is the author of The Glasgow Book of Days, published in January 2013. It contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history, many of which had a major impact on the religious and political history of Scotland as a whole.