Each month the Old Edinburgh Club outline for our readers the significant dates from this month in history.
In the month of December, the following notable events occurred.
| 3rd | In 1894, Edinburgh-born author Robert Louis Stevenson died in Samoa, at the age of 44. |
| 7th | In 2002, in the evening, a fire started above the Belle Angele nightclub off the Cowgate; it swept up through the eight-storey structure to other buildings on Cowgate and above it on South Bridge; it took more than a day for the fire, to be brought under control, and several days for it to be completely extinguished; thankfully no lives were lost. |
| 8th | In 1669, the Council granted a warrant to Robert Clerk to organise the Pricing Book Lottery. |
| 10th | In 1768, the first volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica edited by William Smellie went on sale in Edinburgh. |
| 16th | In 1601, Andro Turnbull was beheaded at the Mercat Cross for the murder of Thomas Ker the previous month. |
| 18th | In 1780, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland was founded. |
| 19th | In 1887, Rumford Medal-winning Leith-born scientist Balfour Stewart died during a journey from Scotland to his country estates in Ireland. And in 1904, the “Scotsman” newspaper moved to new offices on North Bridge. |
| 20th | In 1789, the architect William Burn, FRSE, was born in Edinburgh. And in 1862, surgeon and anatomist Robert Knox died; Knox became notorious as one of the men to whom the murderers Burke and Hare delivered corpses for dissection. |
| 21st | In 1965, Stuart Mitchell, Scottish pianist and composer, best known for his Seven Wonders Suite, was born in Edinburgh. And in 1989, the City Bypass was completed. |
| 24th | In 1650, Edinburgh castle surrendered to Oliver Cromwell. |
| 27th | In 1794, Major Alexander Gordon Laing, the first European to reach Timbuktu via the north/south route, was born in Edinburgh. |
- Compiled by Jerry Ozaniec, Membership Secretary of the Old Edinburgh Club, membership@oldedinburghclub.org.uk
