1881 – Andrew Watson made his Scotland debut as the world’s first black, international football player and captain.

1930 – Mahatma Gandhi began his 300-mile march to the sea in protest against the British tax law securing a monopoly for salt. Joined by thousands of protesters, Gandhi and his followers eventually reached the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and his movement.

1935 – Britain imposed a 30 mph speed limit in built up areas.

1941 – Islanders on the Hebrides hid thousands of bottles of shipwrecked whisky from government officials. The episode was celebrated in the film “Whisky Galore.”

1944 – Britain banned all travel to and from Ireland and Ulster in an effort to prevent German spies operating in neutral Eire from learning of the Allied invasion preparations taking place in Britain.

1950 – The Llandow air disaster occurred near Sigingstone in Wales. 80 people died when their aircraft crashed, making it the world’s deadliest air disaster at the time.

1963 – Winston Churchill was granted an honorary US citizenship by America’s House of Representatives.

1969 – Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman, US photographer.

1984 – By the end of 12th March more than half of the country’s 187,000 mineworkers were on strike over job cuts.

1989 – Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee submits his first proposal for an “information management system” to his boss at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who finds it “vague, but exciting”.

1994 – The Church of England ordained the first women priests (32 in total) at Bristol Cathedral. It was a further 21 years before the first female Church of England bishop was appointed, the Rt. Rev. Libby Lane.

2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes, releasing radioactivity into the atmosphere the day after an earthquake.

2012 – Hundreds of mourners, including figures from the legal, political and sporting world attended the funeral of the top Scottish QC, 44 year old Paul McBride. He became Scotland’s youngest QC at the age of 35.

2013 – The people of the Falkland Islands voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a UK overseas territory. Of 1,517 votes cast in the two-day referendum – on a turnout of more than 90% – 1,513 were in favour, while just three votes were against.