5 stories set here.
Joseph Lister introduced carbolic acid antiseptic surgery at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1865 after reading Pasteur's germ-theory work. Post-operative mortality on his ward fell from about 46% to about 15% within three years. The British medical establishment took a substantial fifteen years to accept the method.
Read the story →At 5 a.m. on 13 February 1692, Captain Robert Campbell and approximately 120 soldiers of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment turned on the MacDonalds of Glencoe, who had been their hosts for twelve nights under the Highland code of hospitality. Thirty-eight MacDonalds were killed in their homes and on the snow. About forty more died of exposure in the mountains. The order had been signed by William of Orange.
Read the story →Sigurd Eysteinsson — known as Sigurd the Mighty, the second Norse Earl of Orkney — defeated the Scottish chieftain Máel Brigte in 892 AD, beheaded him, and tied the head to his saddle as a trophy. The dead man's tooth scratched Sigurd's calf during the ride home. The wound became infected. Sigurd died of sepsis approximately three weeks later.
Read the story →The Tay Bridge opened in 1878 as the longest railway bridge in the world — about 3.2 km across the Firth of Tay between Dundee and Wormit. Nineteen months later, on the evening of 28 December 1879, its central high girders collapsed in a violent gale with the Edinburgh-Dundee passenger train passing across. All 75 people on board died.
Read the story →The Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton of March 1328 ended the First War of Scottish Independence. The English regency under Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer recognised Robert the Bruce as legitimate king of Scotland. The treaty was substantively reversed by Edward III within five years of taking personal control.
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