April 8 1364 King John II of France died, called John the Good (French: Jean le Bon), was the King of France from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois. Captured at the Battle of Poitiers (1356) and taken as a captive to England.

John painted on wood panel around 1350, Louvre Museum. John’s great granddaughter Catherine of Valois, (wife of Owen Tudor of Wales,) had great granddaughter Margaret Tudor (wife of James IV of Scotland). Thus John the Good was ancestor of all English royalty from Henry 7th 1488 and Scots royalty from James V 1513.

1508 The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane, published by Andrew Myllar (Ayr) and Chapman. First Scots printers and book sellers.

1531 Trinity Hospital, founded in 1460 by Mary of Gueldres in memory of her husband, King James II(ancestors of all Scots royalty from 1460, and English from 1607).. Queen Mary was interred in the church, until her coffin was moved to Holyrood Abbey in 1848. On 8 April 1531 the Provost Master John Dingwall contracted with a mason Robert Dennis to complete the building for his lifetime. Clan Dingwall was memorialized in Brave, Disney movie, as a competitor for the fair lady.

1840s water color Trinity church.

After the Scottish Reformation the kirk became the North East Quarter Church of Edinburgh. During the 1590s, the kirk was used by Edinburgh University for graduation ceremonies. Built in the shadow of Calton Hill, the gothic kirk, and its associated hospital, were demolished in 1848, despite a formal protest from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to allow for the construction of Waverley Station. It was carefully dismantled and each piece of masonry was numbered with the intention of reconstructing the kirk on another site. Edinburgh Town Council received £16,000 from the North British Railway Company for the purpose of reconstructing the building, or building a substitute, but the funds were never used.

1534 to 1607 to 1641 circa. The Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and Penal Laws of England, Ireland and Scotland were, according to Edmund Burke “a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.” Savage, John (1869). Fenian Heroes and Martyrs. Patrick Donahoe. pp. 16. Bans on Catholics, Dissenters from the Established Church Presbyterians, Exclusion from the legal professions (clerks, Bailiffs, lawyers, solicitors, barristers, Judges, notaries, Chancellors) repealed 1793 and the judiciary, repealed circa 1829.

http://saints.sqpn.com/ncd06402.htm

During the reign of King James I (1603-1625) all Elizabeth’s measures were confirmed with additional aggravations, and after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, new statutes prescribed a new Oath of Allegiance to be given to all persons over 18, and prohibited recusants (those who refused to attend the new services) from civil and military employment.

After the Restoration in 1660, under King Charles II the following measures were added: Test Act (1673), by which all officers were required to declare against Transubstantiation

in 1678 Catholics were excluded from Parliament, members were obliged to declare against popery, married women were obliged to receive the Sacrament in the Established Church before their husband’s death.

In 1679, twenty-two persons suffered death after the Titus Oates Plot. A new era of persecution began with the Revolution of 1688. The “Act for further preventing the growth of Popery,” passed in 1699, decreed: a reward of 100 pounds for the apprehension of any priest, life imprisonment for clergy exercising priestly duties, life imprisonment for keeping Catholic schools, that recusants were prohibited from inheriting, purchasing, or devising property.

The last penal laws were those of King George I (1715-1745), which ordered confiscation of the estates of popish recusants and a tax to be levied upon Papists (1722). The task of repeal was slow and long, the chief measures being three, in 1778, 1791, and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. The only disqualifications now (circa 2012) in force against Catholics are those prohibiting the sovereign from being or marrying a Catholic, or any Catholic from holding the office of lord chancellor [equivalent to US Chief Justice]. The media reported that the day before Kate Middleton married Prince William [29 April 2011], She was confirmed Anglican.

About 1991 and 2005 the American Bar Associations adopted a Code of Judicial Conduct to exclude from the American legal professions Judges belonging to the (21st century equivalent of) dissenters (i.e. Boy Scouts, religions – being described as invidious discrimination organizations.) By 2015 (Jan 29, March 16), the California Supreme Court Chief Justice announced her plan to enforce the rule against California state judges belonging to the Boy Scouts of America.   What’s old is new again.

1746 On 8 April 1746, Duke of Cumberland set out from Aberdeen for Inverness, and, on 16 April, he fought the decisive Battle of Culloden, in which the forces of the Young Pretender were completely destroyed. Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland Robert Gordon Merchant Gordon, who died in 1731, willed his estate to build a residential school for young boys in Aberdeen. Gordon decided that his fortune would be used to found ‘a hospital for maintenance, aliment, entertainment and education of young boys’ and wrote his will to that effect. Gordon started work on the project in 1730. He died shortly thereafter—of overeating it is said—but the project had started, funding was still there, owing to his foresightedness, and work continued on his dream. Construction of the building was completed in 1743. However before it could be used for its intended purpose, it was taken over by the Duke of Cumberland to use as a barracks for the Hanoverian troops on his visit to Aberdeen in 1746 to put down the Jacobite rising, and so the hospital did not open until 1750. That school was the genesis of the institution now called Robert Gordon University.

Robert Gordon.

1775 Boston Massachusetts. Gun control. The English have a secret plan to disarm the colonials, by confiscating the Colonials personal pistols and muskets. Across the ocean from Scotland, hundreds of thousands of Scots and their descendants are scattered 2,000 miles up and down the Atlantic coast of the colonies, many having been forced by the Highland Clearances. The English occupied Boston 3 years earlier and have identified different caches of colonial arms, particularly those at Lexington and Concord. Gun control will jump start the War of Independence and be the spark for the American Revolution. Gun control is not about control, but about power.

1795 The Prince of Wales married the Princess Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick. Tytler’s Britannica.

1810 Janet Downie Hardie, 8 apr 1810 Leith Midlothian, a Scottish midwife, who may have studied obstetrics at the U. of Edinburgh under Sir James Simpson, the first to use chloroform in childbirth. She became a Saint in 1845. Her husband died in 1847. With her 5 children and 30 year auld sister, she left for Utah March 23, 1856 on the ship Enoch Train. Joined the “Handcart Company” whose captain was Capt. Daniel Mc Arthur. They arrived in Salt Lake City, Sept. 27, 1856, traveled six months from Scotland to Salt Lake City, Utah (Died 3 junk 1872) after walking 1,300 miles pushing a handcart from Iowa City, Iowa. delivered many (1,000) children in Utah. CONVEYANCE & CONTRIBUTION: MORMON SCOTS GATHER TO AN AMERICAN ZION, History Scotland magazine – Vol.5.4 – July/August 2005

Mrs. John Hardie.

1811 New York City. Robert Livingston (1746-1813) appointed to a Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie, and Report which became known as the Erie Canal Commission. Livingston was a Founding Father of the United States was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although he was recalled by his state before he could sign the final version of the document. (clan Livingstone) Livingston signed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

1840 map of the Erie canal. Scots names along the canal include Lyons, Scotia, Albany

1854 The Siege of Sevastopol, Begins in September. Continues to 1855. Crimean War, Black Sea, ends in September. Scots Fusilier Guards, now the Scots Guards. 1st Royal Regiment: now the Royal Scots. 42nd Highlanders, The Black Watch. 6th Dragoon Guards: later the 6th Carabineers and now the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Royal Scots Greys: now the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. 71st Highland Light Infantry, now the Royal Highland Fusiliers. 72nd Highlanders: later the Seaforth Highlands, then the Queen’s Own Highlanders and now the Highlanders. 79th Highlanders, the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders: later the Queen’s Own Highlanders and now the Highlanders. 90th Regiment: later the Scottish Rifles; disbanded in 1966. 93rd Regiment: now the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. http://www.britishbattles.com/crimean-war/sevastopol.htm

British Base at Balaclava. On Easter Sunday, 8th April 1855, the Allied began a heavy bombardment of the city’s defenses. A weapon that made its first appearance was the mortar, firing an exploding projectile in a high arc from a position out of sight of the enemy.

2014 Sebastopol, Crimea becomes challenge to NATO (including United Kingdom and Scotland) as Russian unmarked troops invade.

1895 – In Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares unapportioned income tax to be unconstitutional, as not allocated per head as required in the Constitution. Joseph Hodges Choate was attorney for Farmers.

1896 “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played by the Navy at the inaugural modern Olympic Games in Athens, 1896. The United States wins 11 Gold, 7 Silver and 2 Bronze medals, a total of 20. The Navy was sent to support the athletes, and when the American won Gold, the American team was informed of a ceremony to present the award, while the band played a tune, if desired. The Navy band, in attendance, brought out a new sheet music commemorating the Battle of Fort McHenry to play while the Stars and Stripes were honored on the platform. This starts the tradition of the Star Spangled banner at the Olympics, and trickles into the motto ‘in God we Trust’ on American coins, and a national anthem.

15 star and striped flag. amhistory.si.edu

1904 Entente Cordiale signed between United Kingdom and France, which became the Triple Entent between the U.K. France and Russia. The French term Entente Cordiale (usually translated as “cordial agreement” or “cordial understanding”) comes from a letter written in 1843 by the British Foreign Secretary Lord Aberdeen to his brother, in which he mentioned “a cordial, good understanding” between the two nations. George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG, KT, FRSE, FRS, PC, FSA Scot (28 January 1784 – 14 December 1860),[1] styled Lord Hade from 1791 to 1801, was a British politician, diplomat and landowner, and Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855.   Fellow of the Society of Actuaries of Scotland. Privy Counselor. Fellow of the Royal Society. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Knight Companion of the Order of the Thistle. Knight of the Order of the Garter. Grandson of George Gordon 3rd Earl of Aberdeen 1722-1801, William Gordon 2nd Earl of Aberdeen 1679- 1746. George Gordon 1st Earl of Aberdeen (1637-1720) and Anne Lockhart. Sir John Gordon 1st Baronet of Haddo Aberdeenshire 1610-1644.

 Britannia and Marianne dancing together.

1906 Joseph Fielding Smith, Sustained in general conference as Assistant Church Historian, a position he holds until March 1921. 10th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Descended from Mack of Inverness (clan Mack), Scotland and Malcolm King of Scots.

1929 Time Magazine Cover featuring US Senator Reed Smoot (Clans Burton, Crawford)

1942 William J. Campbell (born April 8, 1942) is a Republican politician from California.

1991 ECCLES WAS EMIGRANT FROM SCOTLAND. David Eccles, a Mormon emigrant from Glasgow, Scotland, who came to America with his family in 1863 at age 14, became a leading figure in the economic growth of Utah and the Pacific Northwest.

He was a self-made multimillionaire, who rose from poverty to own or hold major financial interest in 48 companies – including lumber, railroads, sugar beet refineries, food processing, heavy construction, land and livestock, coal, electric power insurance and banks. When he died in 1912, David Eccles was president of 17 industrial corporations and seven banks.

In 1892 he was elected a director of the Commercial National Bank of Ogden.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/155671/ECCLES-WAS-EMIGRANT-FROM-SCOTLAND.html?pg=all

2005 Melania Knauss featured on Avenue. Married Donald John Trump, Sr. on January 22, 2005 (clans MacQueen, Macaulay, MacLeod, of Aberdeenshire and Outer Hebrides), (born June 14, 1946).

2011 Soul Surfer released. The life of surfer Bethany Hamilton. At the age of thirteen, Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack. (Hamilton Clan)

The film is directed by Sean McNamara. Actor Anna Sophia Robb as Bethany, is of Scots descent.

2013 The From Scotland With Love fashion show, the theme of this show will be “The Scottish Lion Meets the Asian Dragon”, 7:30PM cocktail party, 9PM fashion show.

The Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) will again be our primary beneficiary in the United States.