1843 - 1861

1843
When Thomas Chalmers leads 203 commissioners to walk out of the General Assembly of Scotland at the government's refusal to grant spiritual independence to the church, he will alter the course of his country's subsequent ecclesiastical history. The dissenters form the Free Church of Scotland.

The coveted Gold Medal for the Royal Society is awarded to James David Forbes, for his work on heat conduction and the internal structure of glaciers.

Birth of David Gill, who will perfect the heliometer to measure the angular separation of celestial bodies, and who will pioneer the use of photography to map the solar system.

1844
Death of Thomas Campbell, whose founding of a movement to establish the University of London for poor students or those of divergent religions broke the stranglehold of the established Church in deciding who was qualified for university admission in Britain.

Donald Currie joins the Cunard Company, later to found his own shipping line, the Castle Line; head the Union-Castle Line; and play a major part in the restoration of the Transvaal to the Boer settlers in South Africa.

Daniel Macmillan, with his brother Alexander, publishes the first catalog of their newly founded bookshop of Macmillan and Company that will grow into one of the largest book publishing firms in the world.

1846
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, becomes Governor General of British North America, to have enormous influence on the orderly and democratic development of Canada. In 1854 he will negotiate the Reciprocity Treaty between the Canadian Colonies and the United States.

1847
Birth of Alexander Graham Bell, prolific inventor and teacher of the deaf. He would give the world the modern telephone through his realization that electricity could be generated to vary in intensity as sound waves that could be shaped and transmitted through air. James Ramsay Dalhousie, becomes Governor General of India; through military

Conquest and annexation of various independent provinces, he will help create the centralized state of India

James Young Simpson substitutes chloroform for ether in the relief of labor pains during childbirth, thus freeing the medical industry from its earlier long-held belief that pain and suffering was a natural part of the birthing process.

James and George Thompson found the John Brown Shipyard at Govan. It moved to the Clyde in 1871, and was taken over by John Brown's steel company in 1899.

1848
Birth of James Balfour, whose famous letter of 1917, the "Balfour Declaration," to Baron Rothschild will argue for British support and aid for the establishment of a home for world Jewry in Palestine.

Glasgow mathematics professor William Thomson introduces the absolute scale of temperature that will be named the Kelvin scale, after his appointment as Baron Kelvin of Largs in 1892.

1849
Allen Octavian Hume enters the Indian Civil Service, later as a leading advocate of the Indian National Congress. He will become instrumental in the development of democratic representational government for the people of the sub-continent.

John Muir emigrates from Scotland to Wisconsin, where he will abandon his chosen career as a mechanical engineer and become a naturalist. He will later persuade the Federal government to adopt a forest conservation policy and to establish Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.

1850
James Young sets up his first refinery to extract paraffin from a distillation of coal and shale oil. Paraffin will become one of the world's leading sources of heating and cooking for the next century.

A storm uncovers Skara Brae in Orkney, a Stone Age village which had been covered by sand since about 2300 BC.

1851
William Thomson gives a complete account of thermodynamic theory. His work will lead to the discovery of radio waves by Heinrich Hertz in 1887.

1853
James McCulloch leaves Glasgow for Australia, where he will become Prime Minister of Victoria (1863-68) and do much to influence the course of Australia's history.

1854
Birth of Robert Laird Borden in Nova Scotia, a future Prime Minister of Canada and leader in transforming the status of his country from British Colony to that of an independent nation and member of the Commonwealth.

John Elder introduces the compound steam engine into ships, thus making long voyages possible on routes where refueling was impossible.

1855
Samuel Cunard introduces iron-hulled steamships onto the Trans-Atlantic route to break the monopoly of the sailing ships of the American Black Ball Line.

John William Dawson, of Nova Scotia, publishes "Acadian Geology", thus making an important contribution to science. In the same year, he becomes Principal of McGill University, Montreal, to help transform it into one of the world's foremost centers of learning.

Archibald Geike is appointed to the Geological Survey of Great Britain where his studies of the effects of fluvial erosion will establish him as one of the foremost geologists of his time.

1856
Birth of William Archer, translator of "Ibsen" who will heavily influence the future direction of both English and American drama.

Andrew Carnegie emigrates to Pennsylvania. He buys 10 shares of Adams Express, his first investment.

1859
Birth of George Nicoll Barnes, one of the founders of the British Labour Party. He will lead the national strike of 1897-98 that will establish the principle of collective bargaining over conditions of employment.

1860
Birth of James Barrie, author of plays and novels including "The Admirable Crichton" and "Peter Pan".

Birth of John George Bartholomew, whose work as a cartographer and publisher of maps and atlases will greatly improve the standards of world cartography.

Prestwick, near Glasgow is host to the first British Open.

1861
Publication of Henry Maine's "Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and its Relation to Modern Ideas" that will have a great influence upon the study of political theory and anthropology and which will help place comparative jurisprudence on a sound historical footing.