Sum mare facts aboot oor bonnie wee country..mo Bay City Rollers The tartan One Direction of their day, the Seventies teen sensations gave us endless meaningless pop nonsense such as Bye Bye Baby and All of Me Loves All of You. When dedicated followers of Rollermania werent tripping over absurdly long tartan scarves, they were being hauled, weeping, over crash barriers when the excitement of Shang-a-Lang got too much. Best-ever World Cup goal Scotland may not have progressed past the first round in the 1978 World Cup, but the nations presence will be forever remembered for a super strike by Archie Gemmill during a 3-2 win against Holland, often cited one of the greatest Cup goals. Bicycles Blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan made a pedal cycle based on a hobby horse, with horizontal pedal movement. He would cycle the rough roads in Dumfriesshire, but never tried to profit from his invention. Unlike the Lycra industry. Braveheart Mel Gibson was too busy directing and starring in this epic account of William Wallaces battle against King Edward of England that he seemingly didnt have time to perfect a Scottish accent. The film took more than $200m at the box office and transformed the market in blue face paint. Altogether now: They may take our lives, but theyll never take our freeddddddooOOOMMMM! Britains greatest tennis player The worlds No 4 and winner of eight Masters Series titles, described by English commentators as British in victory and Scottish in defeat, Andy Murray will no longer be open to claim by those south of the border if Scotland gains independence. Burns Night A night to raise a dram or two to Scotlands patron saint of gloomy poetry and drunken wailing, Robert Burns, arguably most famous for having written Auld Lang Syne in 1788. Arms crossed, should old acquaintance be forgot, de-daaaa de-da de-daaaaa. Hat-tip to anyone who knows any words beyond the first verse. Even if youre Scottish. Canals While canals date back to Roman times, we have Thomas Telford, from Dumfriesshire, to thank for the design of the Ellesmere and Shrewsbury canals, as well as the Caledonian canal. Carnegie Hall Andrew Carnegies ascent from weavers son to billionaire steel magnate is one of the greatest rags-to-riches tales ever. Of course, he had to leave Scotland to make his fortune, heading for America with his parents in 1848, aged 13. But he did put a lot back, giving oodles of money to his home town of Dunfermline to build a library and a park, and to New York for Carnegie Hall. Chicken Tikka Masala Glasgow chef Ali Ahmed Aslam lays claim to creating Britains favourite dish, and the staple of a million takeaways. The proprietor of Shish Mahal restaurant, in the west end of the city, was experimenting with condensed tomato soup, and threw in spices for sauce. And culinary history was made. Chilean Navy Admiral Thomas Cochrane, nicknamed the Sea Wolf in the Napoleonic Wars, left the UK in official disgrace. He was welcomed to Chile, in 1818, where he became a citizen of the country, took command of the national navy and introduced British naval customs. Chloroform Sir James YSimpson, a professor of midwifery, was his own guinea pig, experimenting with chloroform on himself and later on his friends in 1847. He went on to use it as an anaesthetic to ease the pain of childbirth, leading to its acceptance in modern medicine. If only you could use it during a debate on the Barnett formula. Christmas Tree Still finding pine needles under the sofa?Its probably Scotlands fault. Millions of Scots pines are grown across northern Europe and Asia every year, before being hacked down, lit up, tinselled to death, then chucked out with the last bit of turkey. Colour photography Those Kodak moments were only possible thanks to 19th-century Scottish scientist James Maxwell, who invented the three-colour method. His theory, based on mixing red, green and blue colours of light, led him to present the worlds first colour photograph –inevitably of a tartan ribbon –in 1861. Criminal fingerprinting It wasnt until 1880 that Dr Henry Faulds, a Scottish surgeon working in Japan, realised he had the secret to catching criminals at his fingertips. He published his idea of recording fingerprints with ink, and was the first to identify fingerprints left on a glass bottle. Which is why all good criminals wear gloves. David Cameron He hides it well, but the Prime Minister is of Scottish stock. His great-great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes, made his fortune in the US before returning to Scotland in the 1880s. And the Camerons had an ancestral home in Aberdeenshire, Blairmore House, for decades before selling up in 1931. Expect him to mention this more in the next couple of years. Decimal fraction The 16th-century mathematician John Napiers discovery of the logarithm has brought misery to countless generations of maths students. And Napier, the 8th Laird of Merchiston, also invented Napiers bones –an abacus to calculate products and quotients of numbers.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:50:18 +0000
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