Events from the year 2002 in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Incumbents

First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...

and Keeper of the Great Seal –

Jack McConnell Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister ...

* Secretary of State for Scotland –

Helen Liddell Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke PC (' Reilly; born 6 December 1950) is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2003 and British High Commissioner to Australia from 2005 to ...

Law officers

Lord Advocate His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...

– Lord Boyd of Duncansby *

Solicitor General for Scotland , body = , insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg , insigniasize = 110px , image = File:Official Portrait of Ruth Charteris QC.png , incumbent = Ruth Charteris KC , incumbentsince = 22 June 2021 , department = Crown Office and ...

–

Elish Angiolini Lady Elish Frances Angiolini (''née'' McPhilomy; born 24 June 1960"Angiolini, Elish Frances" in ''Who's Who'', A & C Black.) is a Scottish lawyer. She was the Lord Advocate of Scotland from 2006 until 2011, having previously been Solicitor Ge ...

* Advocate General for Scotland – Lynda Clark

Judiciary

Lord President of the Court of Session The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. The L ...

and

Lord Justice General Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

– Lord Cullen of Whitekirk *

Lord Justice Clerk The Lord Justice Clerk is the second most senior judge in Scotland, after the Lord President of the Court of Session. Originally ''clericus justiciarie'' or Clerk to the Court of Justiciary, the counterpart in the criminal courts of the Lord ...

– Lord Gill *

Chairman of the Scottish Land Court The Scottish Land Court is a Scottish court of law based in Edinburgh with subject-matter jurisdiction covering disputes between landlords and tenants relating to agricultural tenancies, and matters related to crofts and crofters. The Scott ...

– Lord McGhie

Events

* February –

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

: the gold medal in women's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

is won by an all-Scottish team representing Great Britain in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

skipped by

Rhona Martin Rhona Howie, MBE (born 12 October 1966, Ayrshire), better known under her married name, Rhona Martin, is a British curler most famous for skipping the British women's team at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where the team claimed the gold medal. ...

. * 14 March –

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

is granted

city status in the United Kingdom City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to a select group of communities. , there are 76 cities in the United Kingdom—55 in England, seven in Wales, eight in Scotland, and six in Northern Ireland. ...

by the Queen to mark her Golden Jubilee. *

10 February Events Pre-1600 *1258 – Mongol invasions: Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end. * 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, sparkin ...

– the preschool television series ''

Balamory ''Balamory'' is a British live-action children's programme on BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies for pre-school children, about a fictional small island community off the west coast of Scotland, named ''Balamory''. Four series were produced between ...

'' made by BBC Scotland is first broadcast, nationally. * 14 March – appeal of

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi ( ar, عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي, ; 1 April 1952 – 20 May 2012) was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Li ...

against a conviction for murder in connection with the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie is rejected and the

Scottish Court in the Netherlands The Scottish court in the Netherlands was a special sitting of the High Court of Justiciary set up under Scots law in a former United States Air Force base, Camp Zeist in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, for the trial of two Libyans charged with 270 ...

is decommissioned. *

19 March Events Pre-1600 *1277 – The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire. * 1279 – A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends ...

– a lesbian couple are granted parental rights over their children by an Edinburgh court. *

29 March Events Pre-1600 * 845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. *1430 – The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica from the Republic of V ...

– coal mining in

, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years, comes to an end with the closure of

Longannet coal mine Longannet power station was a large coal-fired power station in Fife, and the last coal-fired power station in Scotland. It was capable of co-firing biomass, natural gas and sludge. The station stood on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, ...

in Fife after its owners go into liquidation following flooding, putting more than 500 people out of work. * 1 May – Airdrieonians, of the Scottish Football League Division One, go into liquidation with debts of £3million. * 7 May – Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

unveils a statue of

Donald Dewar Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as ...

Buchanan Street Buchanan Street is one of the main shopping thoroughfares in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. It forms the central stretch of Glasgow's famous shopping district with a generally more upmarket range of shops than the neighbouring streets: ...

Glasgow city centre Glasgow City Centre is the central business district of Glasgow, Scotland. Is bounded by Saltmarket, High Street and Castle Street to the east, The River Clyde to the south and the M8 motorway to its west and north. Glasgow City Centre is comp ...

. * May – the Scottish Parliament meets during this month in the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. * 24 May –

Falkirk Wheel The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part o ...

boat lift A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between water at two different elevations, and is an alternative to the canal lock. It may be vertically moving, like the Anderton boat lift in England, rotational, like ...

opens in

, also marking reopening of the Union Canal for leisure traffic. *

28 May Events Pre-1600 *585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from w ...

– the

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13) was an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2002. It covers public bodies over which the Scottish Parliament has jurisdiction, fulfilling a similar purpose to the UK-level Freedom of Info ...

receives royal assent. *

9 July Events Pre-1600 *118 – Hadrian, who became emperor a year previously on Trajan's death, makes his entry into Rome. * 381 – The end of the First Council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Theodosi ...

– Clydebank F.C. of the

Scottish Football League Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SF ...

become defunct after a takeover by the owners of the new Airdrie United club, who take their place in the Scottish league. *

24 July Events Pre-1600 * 1132 – Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily. *1148 – Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade. *1304 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of ...

– Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park created, Scotland's first national park. *

30 July Events Pre-1600 * 762 – Baghdad is founded. *1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council. * 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands ...

–

2002 Glasgow floods The 2002 Glasgow Floods were a series of flash floods that occurred after thunderstorms in the Scottish Lowlands in the end of July and beginning of August 2002. The heaviest rainfall fell on the night of Tuesday, 30 July 2002. The East End of Gl ...

result from heavy rain overnight. *

1 August Events Pre-1600 *30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic. *AD 69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under ...

– the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002, that bans traditional fox hunting and

hare coursing Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight, not by scent. In some countries, it is a legal, competitive activity in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn ...

, comes into effect. * Millennium Bridge, Glasgow, opens to pedestrians.

Deaths

* 8 March –

Hamish Henderson Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier. He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and dis ...

, folk song collector (born

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...

) * 30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother dies aged 101 at

Royal Lodge The Royal Lodge is a Grade II listed house in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, half a mile north of Cumberland Lodge and south of Windsor Castle. Part of the Crown Estate, it was the Windsor residence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mothe ...

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

. *

27 May Events Pre-1600 *1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed. *1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death. *1153 – ...

–

Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson (née Cunningham) (9 February 1909 – 27 May 2002) was a Scottish historian and paleographer. Early years Born Marjorie Ogilvie Cunningham in St Andrews, she attended St Leonards School there before studying English ...

, historian and palaeographer (born

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Jan ...

) * 5 July – Jannette Anderson, academic (born

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 ...

) * 19 September –

Rosalind Mitchison Rosalind Mary Mitchison FRSE (11 April 1919 – 19 September 2002) was a 20th-century English historian and academic who specialised in Scottish social history. She was affectionately known as "Rowy" Mitchison. Life Rosalind Mary Wrong wa ...

, historian (born

) * October –

William Dysart William Dysart (26 November 1929 – October 2002) was a Scottish actor, known for his role as Alec Campbell in the 1970s television series '' Survivors''. Dysart also appeared in '' Z-Cars'', ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'', '' Doctor Who' ...

, actor (born

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

) *

9 November Events Pre-1600 * 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery. *1277 – The Treaty of Aberconwy, a humiliating settlement ...

– Neil MacCallum, political activist and poet (born 1954) *

10 December Events Pre-1600 *1317 – The "Nyköping Banquet": King Birger of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers Valdemar, Duke of Finland and Eric, Duke of Södermanland, who were subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköpin ...

–

Ian MacNaughton Edward Ian MacNaughton (30 December 1925 – 10 December 2002) was a Scottish actor-turned-television producer and director, best known for his work with the ''Monty Python'' team. MacNaughton was director and producer for all but four of the f ...

, Scottish actor, director, and producer (born

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

)

The arts

* 24 September – soap opera ''

River City ''River City'' is a Scottish television soap opera that was first broadcast on BBC One Scotland on 24 September 2002. ''River City'' follows the lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch. In November 2017, a s ...

'' is first broadcast on

BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...

. *The office of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Makar A makar () is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a royal court poet. Since the 19th century, the term ''The Makars'' has been specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and sixteenth cen ...

is instituted, with poet Stewart Conn as first incumbent. *The

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band

Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. Fr ...

is formed in Glasgow. * David Greig's play '' Outlying Islands'' is premiered at the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. *

Peter Maxwell Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music. As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Musi ...

composes his ''Piano Trio: A Voyage to Fair Isle''.

References

{{Years in Scotland , state=collapsed

2000s in Scotland

Years of the 21st century in Scotland