Dundee's groundbreaking gallery
Glasgow welcomes BBC Pacific Quay + Arbroath birth of Buick founder
Dundee V&A welcomes first visitors
Dundee's V&A museum opened its doors for the first time this week in 2018. The £80m building, Scotland’s first design museum, was designed by Kengo Kuma and built using more than 2,400 concrete panels, offset from one another so the shadows they cast change throughout the day. Inspired by the cliffs of the Scottish coast, their unusual stacking is intended to blur the distinction between dry land and the River Tay.
The museum was opened by Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Earl and Countess of Strathearn (Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in England) in January the following year, by which point it had already attracted almost 400,000 visitors, of whom 27,000 visited in its first week.
BBC opens Glasgow’s Pacific Quay
The BBC opened its new studios and Scottish headquarters at Glasgow's Pacific Quay this week in 2007. The building cost just over £70m to construct and comprises offices, storage, dressing rooms, production suites, and three television studios. It is built around a red sandstone street, with steps, and the BBC used this as inspiration for the later rebranding of its broadcast facilities as The Street.
The building was opened by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who believed that it would become a design classic. The Guardian described it as "somewhere between a funky urban hotel and a Tuscan hillside village."
Scotland votes ‘no’ to independence
Scotland held a referendum on whether to become an independent country this week in 2014. Just shy of 85% of the electorate cast a vote, with 55.3% voting to remain part of the United Kingdom and 44.7% voting for independence.
The rival campaigns had concerned themselves with several topics that would need to be managed should Scotland declare independence, including what would happen at the border with England, nuclear weapons in Scotland, and which currency an independent Scotland would use.
While the country did not vote to leave the union, polling conducted in subsequent years suggested support for independence was increasing.
BBC Alba goes on air
BBC Alba launched this week in 2008 as a joint venture between the BBC and MG Alba, an organisation that commissions Gaelic-language content for Scotland. The channel broadcasts in Scottish Gaelic, with English subtitles available for some programs.
According to the BBC News website, the channel was an early hit with viewers, with more than 600,000 tuning in over its first week, while 82% of Gaelic speakers with access to the service had watched the channel over the first week.
Buick motor mogul born in Arbroath
David Dunbar Buick was born this week 1854, in Arbroath, Scotland. His family emigrated to Detroit when he was two years old and in 1899, he established a company to develop engines for agricultural machinery. This later evolved into the Buick Motor Company.
Buick left the company within three years due to ill-health brought on through overworking. The remainder of his career was less successful, and he died in poverty in Detroit on March 5, 1929.
Death of Edinburgh bookseller William Blackwood
Publisher and bookseller William Blackwood was born in Edinburgh in 1776 and died this week in 1834. He was 58 and had been fighting cancer. He established the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine in 1817 and his publishing efforts brought many talents to public attention.
His death was widely reported in the media of the day. Blackwood was greatly respected and praised for his contributions to literature and his personal character. The firm he established continued under the name of Blackwoods.
Find out more about William Blackwood
Edinburgh colonel’s decisive role in American Civil War
Edinburgh-born Colonel Robert A Smith was a key player in the American Civil War. He led troops this week in 1862 at the Battle of Munfordville, where he lost his life.
His brother, James, later emigrated to America and commissioned a monument to his brother. It is a lime obelisk sited close to the field of battle. A second monument, which is smaller but of similar shape, can be found in Edinburgh’s Dean Cemetery.