Events from the year 2004 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 –

Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member ...

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

January

* January – a 428 million-year-old fossil '' Pneumodesmus'' found at

Stonehaven Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...

is identified as the world's oldest-known creature to have lived on land.

February

16 February Events Pre-1600 *1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire. *1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Kar ...

– Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first ever official national poet, The Scots

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 ...

, appointed by the Scottish Parliament.

March

16 March Events Pre-1600 * 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang. *1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York. * 1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to r ...

– Fifteen-year-old Kriss Donald is abducted, tortured and murdered by a Pakistani gang in a racially motivated attack in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

May

9 May Events Pre-1600 * 328 – Athanasius is elected Patriarch of Alexandria. *1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy. * 1386 – England and Portugal formally ra ...

– "Loch Fyne accord": an informal discussion in the car park of the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar near

Cairndow Cairndow; ( gd, An Càrn Dubh) is a coastal hamlet, on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. The town lies between the A83 road and the head of Loch Fyne. Cairndow's school closed in 1988 after the roll fell to just 3 pu ...

between

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...

(

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

) and

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

is supposed to have agreed the latter's succession to

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 ...

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

. *

11 May Events 1601–1900 *1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the British House of Commons. * 1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth discover a route across ...

–

Stockline Plastics factory explosion On 11 May 2004, the ICL Plastics factory (commonly referred to as Stockline Plastics factory), in the Woodside district of Maryhill, Glasgow in western Scotland, exploded. Nine people were killed, including two company directors, and 33 injured, ...

: nine people die in an explosion at a factory in

. * May – "The Bruce Tree" at Strathleven in

West Dunbartonshire West Dunbartonshire ( sco, Wast Dunbairtonshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann an Iar, ) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the west of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's commuter to ...

, an

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

once in the ownership of

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

, falls as a result of arson.

June

* 2 June – The

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

addresses the Scottish Parliament as part of his trip to Scotland. *

6 June Events Pre-1600 * 913 – Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed b ...

– Sixtieth anniversary of D-Day. Last minute pressure forces First Minister of Scotland

to attend commemorations.

July

22 July Events Pre-1600 * 838 – Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids. *1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of J ...

– The Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act, which breaks the link between the number of Scottish MPs and the number of MSPs, receives Royal Assent.

August

18 August Events Pre-1600 * 684 – Battle of Marj Rahit (684), Battle of Marj Rahit: Umayyad partisans defeat the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cement Umayyad control of al-Sham, Syria. *AD 707, 707 – Empress Genmei, Princess Abe accedes t ...

– A Landslide in

Glen Ogle Glen Ogle (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Ogail) extends 7 miles north westwards from Lochearnhead to Lix Toll, where it opens into Glen Dochart. The Ogle Burn flows within the steep sides of the glen, from the Lochan Lairig Cheile at the glen's head. ...

traps 57 motorists on the A85.

September

3 September Events Pre-1600 *36 BC – In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate. * 301 – San Marino, one of the ...

–

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

wins the Scottish National Party leadership election, succeeding John Swinney. Nicola Sturgeon becomes the Leader of the SNP in the Scottish Parliament and the Leader of the Opposition.

October

* 9 October –

Scottish Parliament Building ; sco, Scots Pairlament Biggin , native_name_lang = , former_names = , alternate_names = Holyrood , image = Scottish Parliament building - geograph.org.uk - 2469654.jpg , image_alt = , caption ...

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 ...

, designed by

Enric Miralles Enric Miralles Moya (12 February 1955 – 3 July 2000) was a Spanish architect from Barcelona. He graduated from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 1978. After establishing ...

, is formally opened. * 17 October – Three men are murdered in a flat in Crosshill,

by Edith McAlinden along with her seventeen-year-old son and his friend. The crime is dubbed " The House of Blood murders".

November

* 18 November – Daanish Zahid becomes the first person to be convicted of racially motivated murder in Scotland, for killing Kriss Donald.Calum Macdonald
"Two others convicted THE FIRST TRIAL"
''The Herald'', 9 November 2006. , HighBeam Research.

Births

* Full date unknown – Jack Henderson, artist and charity fundraiser

Deaths

27 January Events Pre-1600 * 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire will reach its maximum extent. * 945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to becom ...

–

Rikki Fulton Robert Kerr "Rikki" Fulton, OBE (15 April 1924 – 27 January 2004) was a Scottish comedian and actor best remembered for writing and performing in the long-running BBC Scotland sketch show, ''Scotch and Wry''. He was also known for his appea ...

, comedian, surviving half of Francie and Josie (born

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

) *

1 February Events Pre-1600 *1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. *1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Mona ...

–

Ally MacLeod Alistair Reid "Ally" MacLeod (26 February 1931 – 1 February 2004) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He is perhaps best known for his time as the Scotland national football team manager, including their appearance at t ...

, former manager of the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the thr ...

(born

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

) *

26 February Events Pre-1600 *747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events. * 364 – Valentinian I is p ...

– Russell Hunter, actor (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 ...

) *

9 March Events Pre-1600 * 141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China. * 1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg. *1226 &ndash ...

– Alexander Goudie, painter (born 1933)

The arts

* 26 January – serialisation of

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law an ...

's novel ''

44 Scotland Street ''44 Scotland Street'' is an episodic novel by Alexander McCall Smith, the author of ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency''. The story was first published as a serial in ''The Scotsman'', starting 26 January 2004, every weekday, for six months. ...

'', set in Edinburgh, begins in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

''. * Summer – first

East Neuk Festival The East Neuk Festival is an annual music festival that takes place over five days around 1 July in the area known as the East Neuk of Fife. History Established in 2004 it was the brainchild of Donald and Louise MacDonald and founding a ...

. * 28 September – publication of Alexander McCall Smith's novel '' The Sunday Philosophy Club'' set in Edinburgh. *

becomes

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's first

City of Literature UNESCO's City of Literature programme is part of the wider Creative Cities Network. The ''Network'' was launched in 2004, and now has member cities in seven creative fields. The other creative fields are: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gas ...

References

{{Years in Scotland , state=collapsed Years of the 21st century in Scotland 2000s in Scotland