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26 February 1950: The death of Sir Harry Lauder, one of Scotland's greatest singers and entertainers.
25 December 1950: Scottish Nationalists steal the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in London, where it has been kept since Edward I took it from Scone in 1286.
1951: The population of Scotland reaches 5,096,000.
11 April 1951: The stolen Stone of Destiny is left in the ruins of Arbroath Abbey and later returned to Westminster Abbey.
6 February 1952: King George VI is succeeded by Queen Elizabeth II. There are protests in Scotland that she should be titled Queen Elizabeth I of the United Kingdom.
16 April 1953: The Royal Yacht Britannia is launched at John Brown's Clydebank shipyard.
16 November 1956: The last tram runs in Edinburgh.
3 January 1959: The death of Edwin Muir, one of Scotlands best 20th Century poets.
3 March 1961: The US nuclear submarine USS Proteus is the first to arrive at the new Polaris base at Holy Loch.
4 September 1962: The trams stop running in Glasgow.
1963: The Rootes Car Factory opens at Linwood under a Government policy designed to place industry in deprived areas. It produces the Hillman Imp.
4 September 1964: The Forth Road Bridge is opened between North Queensferry and South Queensferry, west of Edinburgh.
20 November 1964: The first part of the M8 Motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh is opened.
15 October 1965: The Ben Cruachan hydro-electric scheme near Oban opens.
18 August 1966: The Tay Road Bridge opens linking Dundee city centre with Fife.
20 September 1967: The liner Queen Elizabeth II is launched at Clydebank.
November 1967: Winnie Ewing wins Hamilton for the Scottish National Party in a by-election, taking the first ever seat for the party.
15 January 1968: A hurricane strikes Strathclyde leaving 2,000 people homeless and killing 20.
1968: The Conservative Party, under Edward Heath, adopt a policy of promoting a devolved Scottish Parliament.
7 September 1969: The naturalist and author, Gavin Maxwell, best known for his work with otters, dies.
26 June 1970: The Kingston Bridge, carrying the M8 motorway over the River Clyde in Glasgow, is opened.
25 May 1971: Production begins at the Invergordon aluminium works near Dingwall.
2 August 1971: There are protests and a "work in" at the announcement of the closure of the John Brown shipyard at Clydebank.
1 September 1971: The last gas street lamps in Glasgow are phased out and replaced by electric lights.
11 February 1972: The Island of Rockall, 250 miles west into the Atlantic formally becomes part of Scotland.
15 January 1973: The death at the age of 81 of the influential highland author, Neil M. Gunn.
5 December 1973: Sir Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of radar, dies in Inverness and is buried in Pitlochry.
February 1974: At the General Election the Scottish National Party take 22% of the vote and 7 parliamentary seats.
October 1974: By the second General Election of the year, Harold Wilson's Labour Party has also accepted the need for devolution. The Scottish Nationalists take 30% of the vote and 11 parliamentary seats.
1975: The Labour Government publishes a white paper proposing a Scottish Assembly which will exercise a wide range of powers.
11 June 1975: The first North Sea oil is pumped ashore at Sullom Voe in Shetland.
29 April 1977: British Aerospace takes over Scottish Aviation.
February 1978: The Scotland Act is passed, but with an amendment stating that 40% of the whole Scottish electorate must approve devolution in a referendum.
9 September 1978: Hugh MacDiarmid, considered by many to be the most important Scottish poet of the 20th Century, dies at his home in Biggar.
1 March 1979: The Scots vote on devolution. 51.6% of those voting vote "yes", but the turnout is only 63.8%. As a result, only 39.2% of the whole Scottish electorate votes "yes", less than required under the Scotland Act. The Scottish National Party then tables a motion of no confidence in Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, which it wins by one vote. In the General Election that follows in May 1979, Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of a Conservative government.
1980: The Singer Sewing Machine Factory in Clydebank, once the world's largest factories, closes with the loss of 25,000 jobs.
July 1988: The broadly-based Campaign for a Scottish Assembly publishes "A Claim of Right for Scotland". This proposes the creation of a Constitutional Convention to consider Home Rule.
28 April 1988: The Prince and Princess of Wales open the Glasgow Garden Festival.
6 July 1988: The North Sea oil rig, Piper Alpha, explodes, killing 166 people.
21 December 1988: Pan Am flight 103 en route from London to New York is destroyed over Lockerbie, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew on board, and 11 people on the ground.
March 1989: The Scottish Constitutional Convention meets for the first time. It publishes its plans for a Scottish Parliament on 30 November 1990.
April 1989: The Conservative Government introduced the deeply unpopular Poll Tax in Scotland.
January 1990: Strathclyde Region Council takes legal action against 250,000 residents who are refusing to pay the Poll Tax.
1991: The population of Scotland stands at 4,962,000, or 134,000 below the 1951 figure.
1995: The film "Braveheart" is released starring Mel Gibson as William Wallace. It is extremely popular and gives a huge boost to the sense of national identity in Scotland.
17 October 1995: The Skye Bridge is opened to traffic.
13 March 1996: A lone gunman murders 16 primary school children and their teacher in Dunblane.
19 March 1996 : The death of William Hutchinson (W.H.) Murray, one of the greats of Scottish mountaineering.
1996: The Ravenscraig Steel works ner Motherwell closes down, bringing to an end Scotland's involvement in large scale steel production.
1996: Scotland's "Silicon Glen" focused on Livingston produces 35% of Europe's PCs and 12% of the world's semi-conductors and employs 55,000 people.
30 November 1996: The Conservative Government, under John Major and Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Forsyth, returns the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey to Edinburgh Castle, where it is put on display beside the Honours of Scotland.
1997: Dolly the Sheep, the first genetically cloned mammal is created by scientists at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh.
1 May 1997: The Labour Party under Tony Blair defeats the Conservatives in the General Election. Outgoing Prime Minister John Major leaves 10 Downing Street to go and watch cricket at Lords. The Conservative Party emerges without a single parliamentary seat in Scotland.
July 1997: Secretary of State for Scotland, Donald Dewar, issues a White Paper setting out plans for a referendum on devolution to be followed by a Devolution Bill.
11 September 1997: The referendum asks Scots two questions. The first is on the idea of a separate Parliament for Scotland. The second on whether that Parliament should have the power to vary levels of taxation. 74.3% voted yes to the first question, and 63.5% voted yes to the second question.
6 April 1998: The US Senate approves the celebration of an annual Tartan Day in recognition of the achievements of Scottish Americans.
November 1998: Royal Assent is given in to the Scotland Act 1998.
6 May 1999: Elections are held for the Scottish Parliament and the 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament - MSPs - take their seats on 12 May 1999.
1 July 1999: Queen Elizabeth II opens the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. The First Minister of the Scottish Executive, the devolved Scottish Government, is Donald Dewar, who as Secretary of State for Scotland since 1997 had been the architect of devolution.
11 October 2000: Donald Dewar, Scotland's first First Minister, dies in office. He is succeeded as First Minister in the Scottish Executive by Henry McLeish.
November 2001: Jack McConnell becomes Scotland's third First Minister in November 2001.
9 October 2004: The Queen opens the new Scottish Parliament Building.
21 December 2004 : Tolls are lifted on the Skye Bridge: crossing is now free.
May 2007 : Elections for the Scottish Executive result in no single party having overall control of the Scottish Parliament: though the Scottish National Party emerge as the largest party by one seat. The SNP goes on to form a minority government with Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland.