1958 in Scotland

Events from the year 1958 in Scotland.

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – John Maclay

Law officers

Judiciary

Events

13 March – [1958 Glasgow Corporation Tramways|Glasgow Kelvingrove by-election|Glasgow Kelvingrove by-election] results in a Labour gain from the Unionists
May – nuclear development: Dounreay materials test reactor achieves criticality
3 May – Aberdeen Corporation Tramways cease to operate, leaving Glasgow as the only tram network in Scotland. The latter would close four years later in 1962.
20 May – railway collision at Arklestone Junction, Paisley; 97 injured
7 June – Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet describing the diagnostic use of ultrasound in obstetrics as pioneered in Glasgow
4 July – St Ninian's Isle Treasure discovered in Shetland by schoolboy Douglas Coutts.
11 July – Peter Manuel hanged at HM Prison Barlinnie for at least seven murders.
18 August – Regional postage stamps of Great Britain are first issued.
1 September – First of the 'Cod Wars' between the UK and Iceland over fishing rights breaks out.
15 September – British Railways railbuses introduced on Gleneagles–Crieff–Comrie line
19 September – John Duncan Mackie is appointed Historiographer Royal
October – Thurso High School opened
21 November – Construction of the Forth Road Bridge begins. It would open on 4 September 1964, following a ceremony by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
5 December – Subscriber trunk dialling is inaugurated on the UK telephone network when The Queen makes a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost
25 December – Christmas Day is a public holiday in Scotland for the first time
Neolithic Tomb of the Eagles on South Ronaldsay in Orkney first explored by Ronald Simison.

Births

30 January – Derek White, rugby player
9 February – Sandy Lyle, golfer
22 February – Gordon Kennedy, actor
27 March – Peter Howson, figurative painter, war artist
14 April – Peter Capaldi, screen actor
25 April – Fish, neo-progressive rock singer
26 April – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, racing driver
3 June – Cameron Sharp, sprinter
17 May – Alan Rankine, musician and producer
2 August – Elaine C. Smith, comic actress
17 August – Fred Goodwin, banker
30 August – Muriel Gray, broadcaster
20 September – Maureen Baker, physician
27 September – Irvine Welsh, novelist, playwright and short story writer
Christina McAnea, trade union leader
Harry Ritchie, writer and journalist
James Robertson, novelist
Adrian Wiszniewski, figurative painter

Deaths

8 January – Walter Elliot, Scottish Unionist Party MP
29 March – Sir William Burrell, shipowner and art collector
2 April – Mary Barbour, political activist, local councillor and magistrate
3 September – Norman Kemp Smith, philosopher
19 September – Sir John Dick-Lauder, 11th Baronet, soldier

The arts

7 May – first broadcast of the BBC television variety show The White Heather Club which airs nationally until 1968