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| See also: | List of years in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history 1939 in: The UK • Wales • Elsewhere Scottish football: 1938–39 • 1939–40  | ||||
Events from the year 1939 in Scotland.
Incumbents
Law officers
Judiciary
Events
- 2 January – all-time highest attendance for a U.K. Association football league game as 118,730 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow.[1]
 - 1 May – RAF Lossiemouth formally opens.
 - 3 September – World War II:
- Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany.
 - Clyde-built liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-30 in the vicinity of Rockall. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed;[2] the first survivors are brought in to Greenock.[1] On 7 September, survivors are visited by John F. Kennedy, son of the US Ambassador and future 35th President of the United States.[3]
 
 - 4 September
- Civil servants of the Scottish Office begin to occupy its first office in Scotland, St Andrew's House on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
 - Several Citizens Advice Bureaux are founded in the United Kingdom to provide wartime information to the public, including Citizens Advice Edinburgh in Scotland.[4]
 
 - 30 September – Jackie Paterson wins the British flyweight boxing title in an open-air bout in Glasgow.[5]
 - 14 October – World War II: HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.[1]
 - 16 October – World War II: first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard.[6]
 - 17 October – World War II: first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.[7]
 - 28 October
- A dust explosion in the colliery at Valleyfield, Fife, kills 35 people.[1]
 - World War II: First enemy aircraft forced down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, a Heinkel He 111 brought down near Humbie by a Spitfire flown by Archie McKellar following reconnaissance of the Firth of Clyde.[8]
 
 - 30 October – World War II: British battleship HMS Nelson is unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board.[8]
 - 1 December – World War II: German submarine U-21 torpedoes Finnish vessel Mercator off Peterhead and the Norwegian Arcturus in the Firth of Forth.[1]
 - 2 December – World War II: Swedish cargo ship Rudolf hits a mine and sinks off St Abb's Head.[1]
 - 4 December – World War II: battleship HMS Nelson is badly damaged by a mine (laid by U-31) at the entrance to Loch Ewe.
 - 12 December – escorting destroyer HMS Duchess (H64) sinks after a collision with battleship HMS Barham (04) off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.[9]
 - 17 December – Danish cargo ship Bogo sinks off Fife Ness.[1]
 - 21 December – boom defence vessel Bayonet explodes at Leith.[10]
 - HMS Spartiate is established as a Royal Navy shore establishment for Western Approaches Command at St Enoch's Hotel, Glasgow.
 - Strathcarron Reservoir on the River Carron is completed.
 
Births
- 7 March – Duncan Macmillan, art historian
 - 16 April – Donald MacCormick, broadcast journalist (died 2009)
 - 2 May – Mairi Hedderwick, illustrator
 - 4 June – George Reid, politician, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 2003-2007
 - 8 June – Gordon Reid, actor (died 2003 in London)
 - 9 June - Eric Fernie, historian
 - 11 June – Jackie Stewart, racing driver
 - 16 July – Don Cameron, balloonist
 - July – Wes Magee, poet and children's author (died 2021)
 - 23 July – Donald Macgregor, marathon runner (died 2020)
 - 29 September – Jim Baxter, international footballer (died 2001)
 - 19 October – David Clark, Labour politician
 - 31 October – Trish Godman, Labour politician (died 2019)
 - 18 November – Ian McCulloch, actor
 - Dugald Cameron, industrial designer
 - The Mulgray Twins, Helen and Morna Mulgray, crime novelists
 
Deaths
- 18 April – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, patron and promoter of women's interests (born 1857 in London)[11]
 - 20 April – William Mitchell Ramsay, archaeologist and New Testament scholar (born 1851)
 - 13 September – Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney (born 1856)
 - 21 September – George Washington Browne, architect (born 1853)
 - Robert Bryden, artist and sculptor (born 1865)
 
The arts
- 18 May – Cosmo Cinema opens in Glasgow as an art film theatre.[12]
 - Erik Chisholm's sonata An Riobhan Dearg is composed.
 - Ian Niall's novel Wigtown Ploughman: Part of His Life is published under the author's real name, John McNeillie.
 
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Notable Dates in History". The Flag in the Wind. The Scots Independent. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
 - ↑ Brennecke, Jochen (2003). The Hunters and the Hunted. Naval Institute Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-59114-091-9.
 - ↑ "Unseen letters show how Glasgow helped JFK on road to White House". BBC News. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
 - ↑ "History of the Citizens Advice service – Citizens Advice". www.citizensadvice.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
 - ↑ "Jackie Paterson: World Champion 1943". A Sporting Nation. BBC. November 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
 - ↑ Duncan, George. "Lesser-Known Facts of World War II". Retrieved 12 May 2013.
 - ↑ Doyle, Peter (2010). ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7478-0765-0.
 - 1 2 Flower, Stephen (2011). No Phoney War. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-84868-960-2.
 - ↑ English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
 - ↑ "British naval vessels lost at sea, 1939-45, miscellaneous". The Patriot Files. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
 - ↑ Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân (eds.). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781474436281.
 - ↑ Peter, Bruce (1996). 100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas. Edinburgh: Polygon. ISBN 0748662103.
 
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