2020 in Scotland
Events from the year '''2020 in Scotland'''
Incumbents
Events
January
- 29 January – MSPs vote 64–54 to back calls for a second Scottish independence referendum.
February
- 6 February – Derek Mackay resigns as Finance Secretary hours before delivering his budget following reports that he messaged a sixteen-year-old boy on social media over a period of several months.
- 14 February – Jackson Carlaw is elected as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.
- 17 February – Kate Forbes is appointed as Finance Secretary, the first woman to hold the post.
March
- 1 March – COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland: Authorities confirm the first case of the global COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, the index case of coronavirus being a traveller having returned from Italy.
- 13 March – COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland: Authorities confirm the first death from COVID-19 in Scotland.
April
- 3 April – The results of the 2020 Scottish Labour deputy leadership election are announced, in which Jackie Baillie is elected as the deputy leader of Scottish Labour.
June
- 21 June – The 'Peebles Hoard', comprising Bronze Age horse harness, a sword in its scabbard and other artefacts including a "rattle pendant", is discovered near Peebles in the Borders by a metal detectorist.
- 26 June – Glasgow hotel stabbings.
August
- 4 August – The Scottish Qualifications Authority issues moderated grades to school pupils who have not been able to take examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic; on 10 August, Nicola Sturgeon publicly accepts that her government "did not get it right" over this procedure.
- 5 August – Following the resignation on 30 July of Jackson Carlaw as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, he is succeeded by Douglas Ross MP.
- 11 August – Ruth Davidson is appointed Leader of the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament by Douglas Ross, becoming the Leader of the Opposition again.
- 12 August – Stonehaven derailment: A passenger train derails after striking a landslip near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, with 3 deaths.
October
- 15 October – Kintore railway station reopens.
November
- 25 November – Scotland becomes the first country in the world to make it a legal duty for period products to be available to anyone for free after the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill is approved.
Deaths
January
- 6 January – Danny Masterton, footballer
- 12 January – Jackie Brown, boxer, Commonwealth Games gold medallist, British and Commonwealth flyweight champion
- 15 January – Bobby Brown, Hall of Fame footballer and manager
February
- 6 February – Jimmy Moran, footballer
March
- 9 March – George Strachan, cricketer
- 11 March – Dave Souter, footballer
- 12 March – Alexander Gordon, 7th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, peer
- 30 March – Alex Forsyth, footballer
April
- 5 April – Dougie Morgan, rugby union player
- 14 April – Ron Wylie, footballer and manager
- 23 April – John Murphy, footballer
May
- 1 May – Derek Ogg, lawyer
- 2 May – John Ogilvie, footballer, COVID-19
July
- 9 July – Johnny Beattie, actor and comedian
- 13 July – Pat Quinn, footballer and manager
- 15 July – Maurice Roëves, actor
- 17 July – Alex Dawson, footballer
- 21 July – Hugh McLaughlin, footballer
- 24 July – David Hagen, footballer, motor neuron disease
August
- 4 August – Willie Hunter, footballer and manager
September
- 7 September – Logie Bruce Lockhart, rugby union player, schoolmaster, writer and journalist
- 20 September – Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, herald, Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland
November
- 22 November – Hamish MacInnes, mountaineer
December
- 21 December – Sandy Grant Gordon, whisky distiller
- 26 December – Jim McLean, footballer and manager
The Arts
- 11 February – Douglas Stuart's debut novel Shuggie Bain, a story of growing up in 1980s Glasgow, is first published in the United States; it wins this year's Booker Prize.
- October – Two of the five winners of the UK 2020 ArtFund Museum of the Year Award are Aberdeen Art Gallery and Gairloch Museum.